Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau investigated the Shadow Stream Home, identifying several members but finding no useful chat records. He then shared his remembered Super Electromagnetic Cannon design with the bureau’s researchers, who began studying it, and told Luo Yuan that he suspected his latest special item was a memory.

• Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau examined the Shadow Stream Home, recorded its Group Owner’s and Elders’ account numbers, and ordered round-the-clock monitoring.
• The Network Divine Beast traced several online Deacons to overseas locations and obtained one clear image of a bearded man, but found no older group messages or private message records.
• Ke Meng asked Luo Yuan to introduce him to the bureau’s scientific researchers and sketched the Super Electromagnetic Cannon design he remembered.
• The researchers eagerly began discussing Ke Meng’s sketch, while Ke Meng and Luo Yuan left them to their work.
• Ke Meng told Luo Yuan that he suspected his latest special item was the memory of the cannon’s design, and they recalled the Volcanic Stone’s worldwide effects.

Ke Meng shared the advanced designs and material structures he remembered with leading weapons and battery scientists, who eagerly recorded his drawings and explanations. He suggested that young Bureau members with high gnosis pursue research, while he remained more interested in mysticism.

• Luo Yuan worried that Ke Meng's sleep could endanger Koi City and decided he should not sleep there again.
• More than a dozen electromagnetic weapons experts questioned Ke Meng about the Super Electromagnetic Cannon blueprints, and he drew the structures he remembered.
• Ke Meng revealed that he knew the molecular arrangements of the required materials, prompting the scientists to excitedly ask about the Super Battery as well.
• Ke Meng drew more than two hundred sheets of designs for the scientists, who crowded around him to learn.
• The scientists proposed teaching Ke Meng academic research, but he declined and suggested that Bureau members with high gnosis pursue it instead.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau arranged for him to sleep inside a special field to prevent objects from appearing in the outside world while he slept. Before settling in, he investigated a mirror-bound ghost and asked how the Green-Eye Disease volcano was being contained.

• Ke Meng stayed awake for twenty-four hours as scientists examined the technology he had revealed and the Investigation Bureau inspected his sketches.
• Luo Yuan proposed that Ke Meng sleep in a special field in Whale City, and Ke Meng agreed.
• Ke Meng visited an evacuated residential complex, where investigators had trapped a ghost inside a dressing table’s mirror.
• Ke Meng used Big-Faced Cat to learn that the jealous dressing table’s ghost hunted beautiful people and grew stronger with each victim.
• Ke Meng asked Luo Yuan about the bureau’s suppression of the Green-Eye Disease volcano.

Ke Meng investigated the player’s resurrection system in Deep-Sea R'lyeh and learned that players could be randomly relocated after repeated deaths, complicating the ghosts’ suppression campaign. He ordered the campaign to continue, accepting that it could slow players’ progress but not stop them entirely.

• Ke Meng settled into the renovated apartment with Tangyuan, Shirley, and White Sugar, then sent Tangyuan to search the complex.
• In Deep-Sea R'lyeh, Ke Meng sensed the player’s corpse at a resurrection altar and observed it repeatedly revive under temporary protection while losing a level each time it died.
• A Black Ghost reported that adventurers disappeared after more than ten deaths and that the ghosts had occupied resurrection altars in several major cities.
• Ke Meng deduced that players could be randomly teleported to nearby respawn points after ten consecutive deaths, making the suppression campaign difficult to contain.
• Ke Meng ordered the Black Ghosts to continue suppressing the players’ main respawn points to slow their growth.

Orange Star struggled to contain wild monsters camping the players’ Respawn Points, while researchers discovered that Liu Siting and other Cthulhu believers could access World from space without the public network. Ke Meng then witnessed a player suffering as the game purged her conflicting faiths.

• High-level wild monsters and a Black Ghost slaughtered players at Respawn Points, costing many high-level players ten levels.
• Liu Siting logged into World and survived a Stone Giant’s attack because it sensed her Cthulhu faith, while the monster killed nearby enemies.
• Orange Star researchers confirmed that Liu Siting’s group had entered the game from space and found that World could run on a local network without public internet access.
• Professor Li Shen warned that the game might spread to aliens and that reality could influence the game, though other researchers doubted the immediate threat.
• Ke Meng watched the wild monsters overwhelm players and saw a woman collapse in agony as the game purged her Cthulhu faith and another unknown faith.

Ke Meng watched an Orange Star player lose both her faiths, leaving her psychologically devastated and unresponsive in a hospital. He also tried to uncover whom the Shadow Stream mastermind was contacting on Blue Star, then received a Sacrifice Ritual offering from chaotic evil believers.

• Orange Star people used a Faith-Removal Artifact to strip a female player of both faiths, and she became vacant and unresponsive.
• Ke Meng sensed the former believer’s deep psychological trauma as researchers examined her in a hospital, then stopped watching her.
• Ke Meng spied on the Shadow Stream mastermind and twice detected Blue Star’s aura, but the tentacled monster erased it before he could identify its contact.
• Ke Meng received a Sacrifice Ritual offering at a bloodied site in the game world and decided he needed to rein in his chaotic evil believers.

Ke Meng examined new offerings and found a Dragon King's Mask that could draw hostility and a Spectator's Melon seed that could protect its eater from hostile targeting and the void. After learning that Shadow Stream had killed hundreds of investigators, Ke Meng wanted to strike back, while Luo Yuan suggested he teach at Whale City's Special University.

• Ke Meng inspected the offerings and discovered the Dragon King's Mask, which could draw the hatred of five intelligent beings when its wearer smirked.
• Ke Meng found a Spectator's Melon seed that granted spectator abilities, tested how it grew near Tangyuan, and stored it for an emergency.
• Ke Meng gave Luo Yuan several other offerings and hinted that his condition influenced how many items appeared each day.
• Ke Meng learned that Shadow Stream had assassinated 567 investigators and that more than 800 members had been captured, most of them recruits.
• Ke Meng asked Luo Yuan about striking back at Shadow Stream and proposed assassinating a deacon tracked by the Network Divine Beast, while Luo Yuan suggested Ke Meng teach at Whale City's Special University.

Ke Meng proposed using the Dragon King Mask and a Password-Type Special Item to lure Shadow Stream members into a sting, while the bureau weighed the risks and suspected the Internet Cafe Deacon might be bait. At the Whale Branch Bureau’s testing room, the group saw the mask’s taunting effect take hold even before anyone wore it.

• Ke Meng explained to Luo Yuan how restricted video access, hidden clues, and faked engagement could draw Shadow Stream members to a video of the Dragon King Mask.
• Luo Yuan identified the plan’s risks, agreed to test the mask first, and said the bureau would prepare for unexpected traps before moving against the Internet Cafe Deacon.
• Ke Meng declared that he would kill the Internet Cafe Deacon, while Koi Continent’s Think Tanks warned that the Deacon’s conspicuous behavior might be a Shadow Stream trap.
• Ke Meng brought the Dragon King Mask to the Whale Branch Bureau’s Underground Testing Room, where the people who saw it felt compelled to smash it.
• Ke Meng imagined Di Ping wearing the mask and smirking after his Freedom Dance, and the others suddenly pictured the scene.

Di Ping tested the Dragon King mask, which filled a mutated monkey with intense hatred and guided it toward him. After the monkey failed to hurt Di Ping because of his isolation-type item, Director Lei captured it so the bureau could test whether its memories could be erased.

• Di Ping wore the Dragon King mask and recorded a taunting video, using one of its ten uses.
• Director Lei arranged for Green-Eyed Monkey to watch the video in a dark room, and the monkey emerged enraged.
• Green-Eyed Monkey navigated the bureau toward Di Ping, showing that the mask's hatred could guide it to its target.
• Di Ping opened the monitoring room door, but his isolation-type item caused the monkey's attacks to miss.
• Director Lei captured Green-Eyed Monkey and prepared to test whether a memory item could erase its memories of the hatred.

Ke Meng and the Bureau tested the Dragon King video’s hatred effect on the Network Divine Beast using a monkey’s crooked-grin recording. They then released a password-protected version designed to attract Shadow Stream members, and its view count slowly climbed as people tried to solve the puzzle.

• The Bureau confirmed that the monkey still hated Di Ping after its memories were erased, and Ke Meng suggested testing the video on the Internet Cafe Deacon.
• Di Ping warned that releasing his recording might affect the Network Divine Beast, so the Bureau replaced him with a trained monkey and recorded its crooked grin.
• The Network Divine Beast watched the monkey’s video, felt an intense urge to kill it, and restrained itself while describing other emotions it had experienced through Ke Meng’s videos.
• Ke Meng released the password-protected video online with a puzzle that only a specific audience could solve, while the Network Divine Beast removed a cracking guide after letting it draw attention.
• The video’s view count reached 348 after an hour, as people worldwide struggled to solve the puzzle.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau arranged to send a video to a Shadow Stream Deacon while changing the password questions to target Shadow Stream administrators. Director Lei summoned Toad Express to deliver the package, and the Giant Toad emerged at the bureau.

• The Network Divine Beast used online questions to generate passwords, while Ke Meng watched fans struggle to access his new video.
• Ke Meng and Luo Yuan decided to send a video to the Internet Cafe Deacon and revise the password criteria to target Shadow Stream administrators.
• Di Ping loaded the video onto a Special Item MP4 player and sealed it in an envelope blessed to lower the recipient's guard.
• Director Lei booked Toad Express through an internal delivery channel, and a Giant Toad emerged from the floor at the bureau.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau used a password trap to lure Shadow Stream elders into revealing themselves. Elder Wan warned the group not to watch Ke Meng’s video, but admitted that he had watched it and planned to go into seclusion, while the bureau prepared for an attack.

• Giant Toad delivered a letter to the bureau’s spy on Crocodile Continent, who would pose as a courier and follow the Network Divine Beast’s instructions.
• The password keeper learned that someone had obtained a real password when he forgot the first password he had written.
• Director Wu prepared the bureau’s S-Class members for a possible battle with Shadow Stream elders and ordered the password keeper to cross out the remaining passwords.
• The password keeper forgot the fourth password before he could cross it out, leaving the bureau expecting attacks from two elders.
• Elder Wan warned Shadow Stream Home not to watch Ke Meng’s video, then admitted that he had watched it and said he would enter closed-door seclusion.

Elder Wan suppressed his urge to kill by entering a sealed retreat, while the Investigation Bureau worried that another person who saw the password might be affected. An undercover investigator delivered a special item to the Internet Cafe Deacon, whose hatred of the dancer in its video drove him to attack.

• Elder Wan declared that he would enter a sealed retreat to suppress his urge to kill, and the bureau discussed which silent elder might also have been affected.
• Director Lei and Ke Meng warned that another affected person could lose control, and Director Wu left to move the monkey out to sea.
• The Giant Toad delivered a special letter to an undercover investigator, who waited for the suspicious Internet Cafe regular to return home.
• The investigator delivered the package, and the Internet Cafe Deacon opened it expecting to find a graphics card.
• The MP4 showed a dancing man whose crooked smile filled the Internet Cafe Deacon with inexplicable hatred.
• The Internet Cafe Deacon watched the video to the end, lost control of his reason, and sprang up shouting, "Kill!"

Ke Meng and the investigators defeated the Internet Cafe Deacon at sea by using Di Ping’s Horn of the Sea to distract him and Ke Meng’s Shadow-Grasping Hand to seize his shadow. Just as they thought the battle was over, a Giant Spear struck the sea, capsizing their warship and sending a black shadow rushing aboard.

• Director Lei gave Di Ping the Horn of the Sea, and Di Ping transformed into seawater and discovered he could control the surrounding currents.
• After waiting more than ten hours, the investigators saw the Internet Cafe Deacon descend from a plane toward their position at sea.
• Di Ping attacked the deacon with the ocean, but the deacon broke through the water in Car Armor.
• Old Shi moved Ke Meng behind the deacon, and Ke Meng seized his shadow and sealed him in the Immovable Wine Jar.
• A black-and-red Giant Spear slammed into the sea and capsized the warship as a black shadow rushed aboard.

The Shadow Stream group owner attacked the warship with an enormous spear-shaped shadow, killing the monkey before escaping despite Ke Meng and Old Shi trying to stop him. The survivors returned to port shaken, and the group owner ordered Shadow Stream Home members to continue their assignments.

• A spear-shaped shadow struck and capsized the warship, while Ke Meng realized it was searching for the monkey.
• Di Ping tracked the shadow beneath the sea, and Old Shi teleported ahead so Ke Meng could try to catch it.
• The shadow passed through Ke Meng and Old Shi, badly hurting them before they withdrew to the Investigation Bureau.
• Di Ping righted the warship, and the crew discovered that the monkey had died while everyone else survived.
• Luo Yuan carried the monkey's cage ashore, and Ke Meng saw the group owner's message confirming the monkey's death and keeping the assignments unchanged.
• Director Lei speculated that the group owner's attack may have been restricted to killing one target.

Ke Meng used Synesthesia in a dream to investigate the black-and-red spear and discovered a mire of shadows filled with victims’ faces. He woke with hundreds of faces memorized and went to the Investigation Bureau to find a faster way to draw them and identify the victims.

• Ke Meng entered a dream and used Synesthesia to trace the spear to a bone-filled shadow mire on Blue Star.
• Ke Meng saw the mastermind behind Shadow Stream end a conversation with someone on Blue Star and suspected the organization was plotting something.
• A shadow tentacle became a human face and called for help, then hundreds more faces emerged from the mire.
• Ke Meng memorized the faces and woke, intending to use the Network Divine Beast to search for the victims.
• Ke Meng began drawing the faces at home, then went to the Investigation Bureau to find a faster drawing tool.

Ke Meng used an automatic drawing tool to produce portraits and a scene sketch of the Shadow Stream spear, which caused bureau staff who saw it to suffer headaches. Realizing his dream-self had healed the spear’s mental injury, he acquired the confiscated Mecha for protection and found a startling pattern among the victims’ residences.

• Ke Meng expedited the transfer of a Pressure-Sensitive Pen and used it to draw portraits while sketching the scene by hand.
• Luo Yuan, Director Lei, and Director Wu each developed severe headaches after viewing the Shadow Stream spear drawing and went to rest with the Sweet-Dream Pillow.
• Ke Meng discovered that becoming the Evil God in his dream had erased the spear’s mental injury, then decided he needed stronger resistance or armor.
• Ke Meng exchanged contribution points for the confiscated Mecha, but neither he nor the staff member could find a way to open it.
• The Network Divine Beast identified several dozen more victims, and mapping their residences revealed a startling secret.

Ke Meng recognized the worldwide pattern of victims as part of Shadow Stream’s enormous Sacrifice Ritual, which was intended to summon an unknown being. He went to a victim site in Whale City and sensed that the old crime scene was one of the ritual’s nodes.

• The Investigation Bureau showed Ke Meng a growing map of victims, and he recognized its connections as a Sacrifice Ritual.
• Ke Meng told investigators that Shadow Stream was likely trying to summon something, and the bureau sought his advice on disrupting the ritual.
• Ke Meng suggested investigating victims’ current residences and changing their surroundings, while reasoning that Blue Star’s protection might block whatever was summoned.
• Ke Meng found that the nearest ritual point was the Whale City building where Shadow Stream’s earlier Sacrifice Ritual had failed.
• At the sealed crime scene, Ke Meng recalled the bloodstained Whale County Travelogue and concluded that the building was one of the ritual’s nodes.

Ke Meng discovered that blasting a ritual node weakened its function, and ordered Koi Continent to destroy connected nodes to disrupt the Shadow Stream Organization’s ritual. The bombing campaign spread across the continent while Ke Meng went home to sleep.

• Ke Meng examined the Whale County Travelogue and sensed its close connection to Whale City, but found no way to disrupt the ritual.
• After using Synesthesia and dream synesthesia to inspect a node, Ke Meng agreed with Di Ping’s suggestion to destroy its building with explosives.
• The blast weakened the node, and Ke Meng ordered the destruction of every node connected to it.
• Ke Meng reported that destroying one node removed about ninety percent of its function, while destroying surrounding nodes raised that to about ninety-nine percent; the remaining power persisted because the sacrificial remains were still there.
• Authorities across Koi Continent investigated murder scenes and blasted the areas around ritual nodes, prompting the Shadow Stream people to realize what was happening.

Ke Meng discovered that Orange Star people whose faith had been removed suffered cognitive impairment and became sexless in dreams, while Orange Star halted further faith removal. He woke to eight offerings, including a storage-expanding item and a Level-Up Fish Shirley had kept alive for him.

• The Shadow Stream Group Owner questioned a Deacon who had escaped Koi Continent and learned that the Deacon knew only a few nodes and denied leaking their locations.
• The Group Owner realized no Deacon could have exposed the triple-digit number of destroyed nodes and suspected Koi Continent had gained a vision-granting item.
• Ke Meng observed an Orange Star person whose faith had been wiped clean, and found it could no longer identify its sex and had become sexless in the dream.
• Ke Meng found another cognitively impaired person and used Synesthesia to confirm that their bodies still had female characteristics in reality.
• The Orange Star People stopped removing faith from strange believer inmates in Peace Prison and chose to test the process on people with purer beliefs outside the prison.
• Ke Meng woke in reality and found eight offerings, including a storage-expanding item and a Level-Up Fish Shirley had placed in a tank.