Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng tested Wen Yushan’s control of her figurine and Mi Jingyun’s ability to control a race car, then killed Mi Jingyun’s ant body when she refused to cooperate. Mi Jingyun remained trapped as the corpse’s shadow while Ke Meng left her for later.

• Ke Meng discovered that Tangyuan had cooked noodles in far too much soy sauce, and Tangyuan ate the entire pot.
• Ke Meng confirmed that Wen Yushan could move both ears but could not yet shake her head.
• Ke Meng transferred Mi Jingyun from the race car into a new ant after learning that she could not control the car.
• Ke Meng put Mi Jingyun back into the powered race car for an experiment, then moved her into an ant when its battery ran out.
• Mi Jingyun refused to answer Ke Meng’s questions, so he pressed down on the ant until it died and left her as the corpse’s shadow.

Mi Jingyun used a shadow technique to attack Ke Meng, but his resistance repelled her and he questioned her about her abilities and motives. Still suspicious of Mi Jingyun and Wen Yushan, Ke Meng brought out the sealed Nameless Salted Fish and had Tangyuan handle it.

• Mi Jingyun's shadow tentacles attacked Ke Meng, but his resistance increased and the attack failed.
• Ke Meng transferred Mi Jingyun's shadow into a new ant and questioned her about the attack and her connection to Shadow Stream.
• Mi Jingyun stayed silent, intending to wait for another chance to build up stamina and escape into another host.
• Ke Meng doubted Mi Jingyun and the Beast-Eared Girl, then brought out the Trident with the Nameless Salted Fish sealed inside.
• Ke Meng asked Tangyuan to handle the Trident and placed Wen Yushan's shadow into a clean ant.

Ke Meng forced Mi Jingyun and Wen Yushan to stare at the wrapped salted fish, and Mi Jingyun confessed that she was Wen Yushan’s mentor in Shadow Stream. After learning about their abilities and recruitment system, Ke Meng confined both shadows in stones.

• Tangyuan made Mi Jingyun and Wen Yushan stare at the salted fish, and the sight of its scales brought Mi Jingyun’s memories of her burned face back.
• Ke Meng threatened to make Mi Jingyun look again, and she confessed that she was Wen Yushan’s mentor and that Wen Yushan was a new Shadow Stream member.
• Mi Jingyun explained how Shadow Stream recruited and trained newcomers and described the shadow technique for leaving a host’s body.
• Mi Jingyun claimed that a host’s remaining stamina let her attack after death, concealing the detail that Ke Meng had killed the ant host to provide the opportunity.
• Ke Meng stopped testing the objects, put Mi Jingyun and Wen Yushan into two stones, and left their shadows motionless on the ground.

Ke Meng drank the Random Skill Water and struggled against its overwhelming thirst-inducing side effect, gradually raising his resistance. The chapter left him with a new skill, while the Special Affairs Investigation Bureau planned selective public education about special items.

• Ke Meng drank the entire bottle of Random Skill Water and fought the resulting urge to drink more.
• Tangyuan considered bringing over the water dispenser, but Ke Meng warned him not to.
• The Special Affairs Investigation Bureau agreed to educate the public about low-level special items and recruit people with special talents.
• After resisting the thirst for two hours, Ke Meng drank a little water and raised his resistance to 9.3.
• Ke Meng checked his system and saw that he had acquired a new skill.

Ke Meng tested his newly acquired Slacking Demon Map, which revealed hostile entities but sometimes stopped showing them when repeatedly summoned. He reviewed his video statistics and considered how to make future special-item reviews more engaging without exposing too much information.

• Ke Meng summoned the Demon Map and saw two red dots near his white dot, which he suspected represented Mi Jingyun and Wen Yushan.
• Ke Meng walked about a hundred meters from home and confirmed that his dot separated from the two red dots, then tested summoning the map repeatedly.
• On the fifth summoning, the map displayed no glowing dots, and Ke Meng concluded it could not be trusted completely.
• Tangyuan felt relieved when Ke Meng dismissed the oppressive map and opened the curtains.
• Ke Meng checked his Bilibili views and system missions, then considered how to improve his review videos while withholding some of the Big-Faced Cat's abilities.

Ke Meng sought a way to earn the higher resistance reward by finding unclaimed special items, so he arranged to work temporarily with the Investigation Bureau in exchange for filming captured items. After the Bureau approved his request and made him an officially verified Special Affairs Science Communicator, he joined Whale City's Investigation Group No. 49.

• Ke Meng decided that the higher reward for a task involving a special item was worth pursuing and considered contacting the Investigation Bureau for leads.
• Ke Meng called Captain Luo and offered to assist investigations temporarily without claiming captured items, asking only to film them for review videos.
• Captain Luo reported Ke Meng's proposal, and the higher-ups approved it on the condition that his videos avoided sensitive information.
• The Investigation Bureau changed Ke Meng's status to temporary personnel and offered him official verification as a Special Affairs Science Communicator, which he accepted.
• Captain Luo invited Ke Meng to join Whale City's Investigation Group No. 49.

Ke Meng joined Captain Luo’s Whale City Investigation Team No. 49 as a temporary combat investigator and studied how special domains and investigations worked. After learning that ordinary weapons and clothing could not enter domains, he was invited to the Investigation Bureau for a uniform, testing, and free combat training.

• Captain Luo added Ke Meng to Investigation Team No. 49 and assigned him temporary combat duties because he had the Mighty Gloves and Tangyuan.
• Ke Meng learned that he was considered a rank F newcomer despite possessing a class 1 item, and asked why investigators could not rely on firearms.
• A teammate explained that ordinary weapons could not enter some special domains, so investigators had to use special items to fight.
• Ke Meng studied the investigator handbook and learned how teams investigated, contained, or, as a last resort, destroyed dangerous domains.
• Captain Luo invited Ke Meng to the Investigation Bureau for his uniform, spiritual-perception and combat assessments, and free training.

Ke Meng joined Captain Luo at the Investigation Bureau and learned about the bureau’s origins and its screening for evil intentions. He began a test of his spiritual perception with a set of old photographs and sensed something lurking behind a door in the eighth image.

• Ke Meng left home after placing the black salted fish in the middle of his bedroom as a deterrent to intruders.
• Captain Luo told Ke Meng how a justice-minded special item led to the formation of the Special Affairs Investigation Bureau and explained how its barrier revealed black auras.
• Captain Luo said Ke Meng had already passed the barrier’s screening, though hidden evil seeds could escape detection until they sprouted.
• A woman in a white coat tested Ke Meng’s spiritual perception by asking him to identify special items among one hundred old photographs.
• Ke Meng noticed that the photographs mostly showed similar red wooden doors, then sensed something hiding behind the handle opening in the eighth image.

Ke Meng took the bureau’s spiritual perception test and used Synesthesia to see through an anomalous red door. After describing seven nested doors, he received a perfect score, and Captain Luo introduced himself as Luo Yuan.

• Ke Meng identified a red door in a photograph as a special item and sensed another door behind its hole.
• Ke Meng continued using Synesthesia and described increasingly decayed doors nested behind one another.
• The examiner confirmed that the doors continued infinitely and explained that greater spiritual perception revealed more of them.
• Ke Meng described the first seven doors, prompting the examiner to stop the test and award him one hundred points.
• Captain Luo was stunned by Ke Meng’s exceptional perception, and Ke Meng stopped short of describing an eighth door.
• After leaving the testing room, Captain Luo introduced himself as Luo Yuan, an E-rank investigator, and Ke Meng identified himself as temporary staff.

Ke Meng received attention from the Investigation Bureau for his exceptional spiritual awareness, began training, and increased his resistance by enduring thirst. In R'lyeh, he learned the players' first summoning had failed while he slept, and the players prepared another ritual as Liu Siting showed signs of madness.

• The Bandaged Man and other Headquarters officials decided Ke Meng needed the Transcript to help him preserve his reason, despite his temporary status.
• Ke Meng received civilian clothes and military fatigues, then began hand-to-hand training while helping an analyst train Tangyuan.
• After returning home, Ke Meng resisted his thirst and raised his resistance to 10.0, then gained more resistance by enduring his craving rather than drinking.
• The Black Ghost reported that the Adventurers had gathered spacetime stone powder and attempted a summoning ritual, but it failed while Ke Meng was asleep.
• Liu Siting asked the team leader for spacetime stone powder to plan another summoning, and he noticed her apparent madness and ordered her to rest.

After the institute forcibly disconnected Liu Siting and seven other players who had completed the Cthulhu quest, a psychologist struggled to make sense of their disturbed behavior. Meanwhile, Ke Meng toured the Dream World and saw Orange Star People rapidly building the foundations of an industrial system.

• The institute disconnected Liu Siting and the other seven players after their failed sacrifice left them agitated and unwilling to log out.
• A psychologist hypnotized Liu Siting and found her inner world chaotic, then wondered whether the game's evil god was real.
• The Dream World's population surpassed forty million, and Orange Star People organized a vast effort to construct homes and infrastructure.
• Ke Meng toured the new buildings and saw players smelting blocks into alloys and assembling factories, a gun factory, and a giant steam engine.
• Ke Meng spent the night exploring and concluded that Orange Star People were developing an industrial system along a path similar to Blue Star's early technology.

Ke Meng used Synesthesia to locate the Demon Map and entered its dream, where he frightened it into agreeing to behave. He woke in Whale City as Tangyuan opened the curtains.

• Ke Meng found no Demon Map summoning skill, so he used Synesthesia to trace the soul contract and view the Demon Map on a volcanic landscape.
• Ke Meng used Dream Invasion to enter the Demon Map’s dream, an enormous maze where Xenomorphs struggled to escape with its shifting maps.
• Ke Meng distorted the dream and manipulated the Demon Map’s fear, sending it the message that Ke Meng was its master.
• The Demon Map recognized Ke Meng’s name and agreed to obey, then woke from the nightmare when Ke Meng’s oppressive presence vanished.
• Ke Meng woke in Whale City as Tangyuan opened the curtains.

Ke Meng brought the Honey Juice and Trident to the Special Investigation Bureau for testing after telling Captain Luo that special items appeared after he slept. The Honey Juice’s effects were confirmed, and the Bureau prepared to test the Trident.

• Ke Meng summoned the Demon Map repeatedly to make sure it obeyed him, then reviewed his verified Bilibili account and decided to submit the Honey Juice and Trident for review.
• Ke Meng accepted a hard-mode quest to raise his resistance and told Captain Luo he had acquired two more special items that appeared after he slept.
• Captain Luo agreed to report Ke Meng’s situation to the higher-ups and asked him to bring the items to the Bureau for testing.
• Ke Meng arrived at the Special Investigation Bureau with the Mighty Gloves, Trident, and Honey Juice, leaving Tangyuan and the black salted fish at home.
• Ke Meng dipped an ordinary stone into the Honey Juice, and testers confirmed that it gave objects a mysterious impression; Captain Luo suggested testing it on firearms during a mission.
• Ke Meng explained the Trident’s ability to Captain Luo, who noted that the Mighty Gloves could pair well with it, and the Bureau prepared to begin testing.

Ke Meng tested the Mighty Gloves and Uncertain Trident, summoning a gigantic Monster Bear that the military disabled with artillery. He later summoned another enormous creature on a second full-force thrust, and he and Captain Luo suspected it was a whale.

• Ke Meng used the Mighty Gloves and Uncertain Trident at a military wasteland test site, summoning a mountain-sized Monster Bear.
• Director Lei ordered an evacuation, and Commander Ling's tanks bombarded the creature until it could no longer move.
• Ke Meng tested the trident with minimal force and brought out several tiny insects.
• At Director Lei's request, Ke Meng made another full-force thrust and summoned a huge fish-like creature.
• Ke Meng and Captain Luo watched the creature struggle on land and guessed that it was a whale.

Ke Meng tested the Uncertain Trident, which produced a blue whale, and returned to the Investigation Bureau with footage of the experiments. Captain Luo invited him to officially join the Bureau and offered a special privilege for storing his items; Ke Meng said he would consider it.

• The military moved a blue whale produced by Ke Meng’s thrust into a seawater tank and found a forty-centimeter-deep wound in its belly.
• Director Lei halted further land-based testing and took Ke Meng to sea, where his thrust produced another blue whale.
• After the warship returned to port, Captain Luo gave Ke Meng the test footage and warned him about foreign forces, especially the Shadow Stream organization.
• Captain Luo asked Ke Meng to join the Investigation Bureau and offered to let him keep his special items while storing them elsewhere.
• Ke Meng said he would consider joining, then drove away from the Investigation Bureau.

Ke Meng edited the Trident footage for a review task, bought Tangyuan a phone, and entered the players’ Joint Dream as Great Cthulhu. There, he noticed a small group building an unusual steel mountain and tree homes for the sake of their hobby.

• Ke Meng reviewed Captain Luo’s Trident footage and edited it into a video, saving the Honey Juice video for a harder review task.
• Ke Meng ordered Tangyuan a phone, and Tangyuan took its companions to watch television while Ke Meng showered and chatted with his fans.
• Ke Meng created a second fan group and told his fans that his new video, featuring a salted fish thrust, was under review.
• Tangyuan turned off the television and kept watch beside Ke Meng as he fell asleep and entered R'lyeh in his dream.
• Ke Meng used Synesthesia to explore the Joint Dream and found players building a spiraling steel mountain and hollow tree homes for their own enjoyment.

Rain Drop, Reinhardt, Hart, North Thorn, and other players continued building a tower toward the sky in the dream world. In the seaside Beginner Village, Unspeakable accepted the Black Ghost’s quest to find eight human followers before his colleagues forced him offline.

• Rain Drop and Reinhardt endured the heat while Hart and North Thorn fitted steel blocks into the Sky-Piercing Tower’s foundation.
• Unspeakable approached the Black Ghost and asked to worship Cthulhu.
• The Black Ghost issued Unspeakable a quest to find the eight players who had shown abnormal behavior.
• Unspeakable accepted the quest and saw the faces of his eight colleagues as the Black Ghost’s influence caused him pain and fear.
• Unspeakable’s colleagues forced him offline, and he reassured them that he was all right.

Unspeakable’s psychological test led researchers to classify Black Ghost as an extreme danger, while Ke Meng accepted a Grassland Werewolf sacrifice and began searching for a way to wake himself from the game at will. He returned to reality when his time ran out and found the werewolves’ offering on the floor.

• Unspeakable left the Psychological Treatment Room after the psychologist refused to let him return to the game.
• Researchers raised Black Ghost’s danger rating and identified Cthulhu as the endpoint of the second-playthrough storyline.
• The Game Worldview Architect told the Director that Black Ghosts had begun preaching before the story’s planned stage, and the Director wondered if deleting the source files would stop the threat.
• Ke Meng received an Eerie Script Book from the Grassland Werewolves and used Evil God’s Blessing to enhance them, sending them howling beneath the full moon.
• Ke Meng failed to find a way to wake himself at will, then returned to reality when his time ran out and saw a small green bundle on the floor.

Ke Meng inspected the Eerie Script Book, a human-skin artifact that summoned a bloodthirsty creature at the writer’s expense, and decided the Investigation Bureau should secure it. He also offered to leave the Trident in the Bureau’s custody, then learned that he was one of only three special humans the authorities had found.

• Ke Meng examined the Eerie Script Book and used Synesthesia to witness a werewolf summon a cloaked ghost, which devoured the writer.
• Ke Meng concluded that the book’s bloodlust and fatal risks made it unsuitable to keep, and decided to hand it over to the Investigation Bureau.
• Ke Meng told Captain Luo that he would surrender the book and leave the Trident in the Bureau’s custody.
• The director of Headquarters thanked Ke Meng and promised to lend him a spatial item, which he could keep permanently after earning enough contribution points.
• The director told Ke Meng that two other special humans had been found, bringing the known total to three including Ke Meng.

Ke Meng learned about other people with special abilities before Captain Luo brought him to join Investigation Group 49 on his first assignment. The team investigated a man who had vanished from an elevator, and they suspected the elevator had become a Special Item.

• Ke Meng heard that another special human caused power outages in his residential complex whenever he dreamed, while the director said Ke Meng had greater potential.
• Captain Luo drove Ke Meng to meet Cheng Le and Doctor Liang, who explained that the team would train his Synesthesia and that enchanted glasses helped investigators see strange traces.
• Doctor Liang explained the glasses’ Spirit Vision function and the Investigation Bureau’s rules for keeping information about special objects secret.
• Ke Meng read a case file about Tang, who disappeared from an elevator despite appearing unconscious in its surveillance footage.
• Ke Meng asked whether Tang was trapped in a special field, but Doctor Liang ruled that out, and Cheng Le said the team suspected the elevator had become a Special Item.