Chapter Summaries

Yu Qing woke to a city stalked by murderous clowns and realized the parents waiting outside his room were monsters, despite their familiar voices and affection. He hid something in his coat and approached them pretending to be frightened, while knowing he was an orphan.

• Yu Qing saw a blood-covered eyeball stuck to his window and watched clowns slaughter people outside.
• A garbled television broadcast warned that clowns could kill at will and urged people to be honest with their parents before cutting out.
• Yu Qing noticed it was midnight, though his parents believed it was noon, and saw his father's neck twist unnaturally as he smiled at him.
• Yu Qing pretended to accept his father's explanation, shut himself in his room, and hid something from a drawer in his coat.
• Yu Qing returned to his parents in tears, and his mother comforted him as both parents fixed their attention on him.
• Yu Qing endured their apparent concern while remembering that he was an orphan and had no parents.

Yu Qing tried to survive his monstrous parents by killing Dad and offering his arm as meat to Mom. After escaping the kitchen, he found a knife-wielding clown breaking through the apartment’s front door, with nowhere left to run.

• Yu Qing pretended to confess to killing someone and offered to shave Dad, then attacked him with the severed hand and knife he had taken from a clown.
• Yu Qing cut Dad open and told Mom he would buy meat, then dragged Dad’s hollow arm into the kitchen.
• Mom recognized the arm as the wrong kind of meat and mutated, so Yu Qing shut her in the kitchen.
• A blood-covered clown with a knife attacked the front door, and Yu Qing backed toward the kitchen as the door began to break.

Yu Qing survived the monsters in his home and discovered that he had been pulled into the game Stairway to Heaven as a new streamer. His profile overloaded the system, and he entered his first instance as viewers crowded into his livestream.

• Yu Qing lured the clown into a trap and killed it, then hid its body at the doorway to discourage anyone from approaching.
• After cleaning up, Yu Qing noticed that his bathroom door had turned black and received a message congratulating him for passing the beginner trial.
• Yu Qing entered the scarlet stairs and learned that he had joined Stairway to Heaven, where he could earn points and redeem them for wishes.
• The system's attempt to calculate Yu Qing's profile overloaded and exploded, then told him to proceed to the top of the stairs and enter an instance.
• Viewers began watching Yu Qing's livestream and commented on his unusual profile, low stamina, and question-mark identity.
• Yu Qing reached the final step, triggered a blaze of white light, and felt malice as the viewers erupted in excitement.

Yu Qing entered the Angel Psychiatric Sanatorium instance and survived his first encounter by catching a falling corpse and treating it gently. After discovering the sanatorium had nine floors, he faced an alarm and black fog flooding the corridor.

• Yu Qing entered the Angel Psychiatric Sanatorium, where the system tasked him with finding a key and escaping within seven days.
• Yu Qing noticed the rope holding an upside-down corpse was breaking, caught it as it fell, and laid it gently on its hospital bed, causing the hidden ghost to spare him.
• Yu Qing left the morgue and explored the top-floor corridor while considering how exploration could help him earn points and attract viewers.
• Yu Qing found a floor plan identifying the sanatorium as a nine-story building.
• Every room's windows blew open, black fog spread into the corridor, and the system turned red and sounded an alarm.

Yu Qing tried to escape the level-seven Black Fog by identifying the sanatorium’s true floors and reaching the cafeteria on the lower third floor. Although he restored his health upon reaching the stairs, the Black Fog breached the supposed safe zone and began dragging him away.

• Yu Qing saw the Black Fog rapidly draining his health and ran for the elevator while the livestream chat mocked him.
• Noticing the elevator’s buttons did not match the sanatorium’s floors, Yu Qing took it to basement level one instead of pressing the third-floor button.
• Yu Qing entered the fog-filled parking garage, confirmed its location, and climbed the stairs to find the lower third floor and its mezzanines.
• Yu Qing’s health nearly ran out as he raced upstairs, so he spent 1,000 points to refill it upon reaching the final stair.
• The Black Fog formed hands that seized Yu Qing’s ankle, waist, and neck, then covered his mouth as more hands began pulling him into the darkness.

Yu Qing escaped the level-seven BOSS's black mist and learned that the livestream audience's points could help him survive. After charming the viewers into sending more tips, he discovered that something had appeared in his palm.

• Black hands engulfed Yu Qing and dragged him into the mist, making viewers assume he had died.
• Golden flashes appeared inside the mist, and Yu Qing tore his way out before the system declared him dead.
• Yu Qing noticed the rules forbidding streamers from erasing instance NPCs except at the audience's request, and considered how to use that exception.
• Yu Qing thanked viewers for their points and promised to stream whatever they wanted, raising his viewer count above five hundred.
• Yu Qing felt something cold appear in his palm and turned to look at it.

Yu Qing followed Cafeteria Granny to the cafeteria, where he uncovered her gruesome obsession with beauty and her poisoned meat. After overpowering her, he addressed the livestream viewers and asked whether they wanted to watch a ghost do a mukbang.

• Yu Qing encountered Cafeteria Granny in the dark corridor and followed her after disarming her with flattery.
• Yu Qing saw the severed limbs and body parts in the cafeteria and realized Granny had stitched beautiful parts from her victims onto herself.
• Yu Qing picked up a piece of Granny’s meat, then challenged her about stealing body parts and called her ugly.
• Cafeteria Granny lunged at Yu Qing, but he pinned her to a chair and offered to feed her the hallucinogen-laced meat.
• Cafeteria Granny claimed the game prevented players from harming NPCs, and Yu Qing asked the livestream viewers if they wanted to watch her do a mukbang.

Yu Qing forced the ghost granny to eat her hallucinogen-laced food for his livestream audience, provoking her and earning tips as viewers urged him to kill her. The lights went out, and the enraged granny lunged at Yu Qing in the darkness.

• Yu Qing pinned the ghost granny and tried to make her eat while his livestream audience watched and tipped him.
• After a viewer paid him to teach the granny a lesson, Yu Qing slammed her face into the plate, exposing her to the hallucinogens she had prepared for him.
• The ghost granny broke free, slashed Yu Qing's arm, and attacked him as she cursed him and the viewers.
• The viewers grew furious at the granny and offered Yu Qing points to kill her, while he welcomed the rewards.
• The ghost granny dimmed and extinguished the restaurant lights, then charged at Yu Qing through the darkness.

Yu Qing killed Granny Ghost for his livestream viewers, but the system punished him for violating the rules and began erasing him. As his health failed, viewers poured in enough tips to fund his survival, leaving his fate unresolved.

• Yu Qing killed Granny Ghost with a golden needle and pretended to be frightened for the livestream.
• The system reset Yu Qing’s stats and announced it would erase him for killing an NPC before reaching level one.
• Yu Qing protested that he had followed the viewers’ requests, but the system’s rules left him unable to resist the punishment.
• As Yu Qing struggled to breathe, viewers began tipping to save him, and one viewer donated ten million points to fund his immortality.

Yu Qing survived the system’s delayed Revival Card, then spent nine million points to destroy the system after learning its ID. He discovered a wedding-ring clue and a weapon rewarded for destroying the system, then approached the black mist in the stairwell.

• Yu Qing endured the system’s lagging Revival Card and finally recovered his breath, though he had wounded his arm.
• Yu Qing bought a Demolition Card and entered the system’s ID, destroying it despite its warning that the livestream would disconnect.
• Yu Qing found a severed finger bearing a wedding ring engraved with XH inside Granny Ghost’s belly.
• Yu Qing picked up a short blade revealed as the reward for destroying the system, named “I’ll Cut You Down.”
• Yu Qing walked toward the black mist in the stairwell, which began writhing as he approached.

Yu Qing tried to test the black mist by luring out one of its hands and attempting to cut it off, but the mist restrained him and knocked away his knife. He used kisses and teasing to loosen its grip and retreat to safe ground, but the hand followed him and flicked his tongue.

• Yu Qing coaxed a black hand from the mist, examined it, and tried to cut it with his knife.
• The mist knocked the knife away, restrained Yu Qing around the waist, and tugged at his ear.
• Yu Qing squeezed and kissed the hot black hand, which grew larger and reacted to his touch.
• Yu Qing kissed and sucked on the hand's finger until the mist loosened its restraints.
• Yu Qing retreated to safe ground, but the black hand stretched after him and flicked his tongue.

Yu Qing used his guide NPC status and the black mist to stop a death-row inmate from attacking him, then tested the knife’s ability to reveal a person’s true form and crimes. As Yu Qing threatened the injured man, the inmate spotted something behind him.

• Yu Qing grabbed his knife and drove away the hands restraining him in the black mist.
• A burly death-row inmate arrived and tried to attack Yu Qing, whose exhausted appearance and livestream chat encouraged the man.
• Yu Qing identified himself as the guide NPC and claimed the black mist was his husband, causing the inmate to retreat in fright.
• The black mist crushed the inmate’s shoulder, and Yu Qing confronted him with his knife.
• The knife revealed that the inmate was human and had raped and murdered 189 underage girls in three years; as Yu Qing cut his forehead, the inmate suddenly spotted something behind him.

Yu Qing carved “I am an animal” into the burly man’s face, kissed the black mist that had appeared behind him, and tricked the man into surrendering his points. After the mist retreated, Yu Qing’s knife identified its true form as a top-tier boss, and another strange noise came from the stairwell.

• Yu Qing stomped the burly man’s injured shoulder and carved “I am an animal” into his face while threatening him with a knife.
• The black mist appeared behind Yu Qing, and Yu Qing kissed its hand and let it touch him as he finished carving.
• Yu Qing claimed points could buy the burly man’s life, and the man handed over all 300 points before realizing he had been fooled.
• The burly man passed out, and Yu Qing fought the black mist until it withdrew to the stairwell, leaving a tiny wisp behind.
• Yu Qing’s knife identified the mist’s true form as a top-tier boss, then a strange noise came from the nearby stairwell.

Yu Qing entered the sanatorium’s daytime registration after surviving the night, where he gave the injured nurse a healing potion and Hu Zibiao was punished for attacking a doctor. When the doctor asked Yu Qing for his name, Yu Qing pretended to be mute, but recoiled in alarm when offered paper and a pen.

• Yu Qing woke at eight as the sanatorium’s black mist and bloodstains vanished, then followed the survivors downstairs to register.
• Yu Qing bought a healing potion and gave it to the nurse after noticing her injuries.
• At the psychiatry department, Hu Zibiao grabbed the doctor, whose touch caused Hu Zibiao’s hand to decay before the doctor sedated him.
• Yu Qing stopped the Tang-jacketed young man from speaking freely and went to the front of the line when the doctor returned.
• Yu Qing pretended he could not speak, but his pupils suddenly dilated when the doctor offered him paper and a pen.

Yu Qing discovered that Doctor Xu Han shared a name with the corpse from the morgue and learned that one patient would be chosen to guard it overnight. The doctor assigned Hu Zibiao, but stopped Yu Qing as he was leaving the examination room.

• Yu Qing entered π as his name, while the young man in the traditional Chinese jacket gave the doctor an absurdly long name through an exaggerated stutter.
• Yu Qing saw the doctor's badge reading Xu Han and received a clue identifying a ring as Xu Han's severed finger, though Doctor Xu Han's hand was intact.
• Yu Qing remembered that the corpse he had carried in the morgue also wore a Xu Han badge.
• Doctor Xu Han announced that one patient would be selected to guard the morgue, then assigned the unconscious Hu Zibiao after struggling with the patients' elaborate names.
• As Yu Qing left the examination room, Doctor Xu Han told him to stop.

Yu Qing discovered that the doctor feared a broken bell and secretly removed its clapper, then learned that bells protected everyone in the hospital from ghosts. As Yu Qing headed to his room with the medicine, the sky darkened and he felt something dead staring at him.

• The doctor grabbed Yu Qing and warned him not to bring medicine to his wife before throwing him into the corridor.
• Yu Qing challenged the doctor, who noticed his bell had stopped ringing and hurried away to inspect it.
• The young nurse explained that staff and patients wore bells to ward off ghosts, and that anyone whose bell broke would die.
• Yu Qing showed his livestream audience the bell's clapper, which he had secretly removed and hidden in his system storage.
• Yu Qing bought the medicine and headed for his room as thunder rolled and an eerie presence seemed to stare at him.

Yu Qing uncovered the Angel statue clue, raising the sanatorium’s difficulty, and helped Qian Lai escape the bloodied vines. The angel marked Yu Qing as its newest sacrifice, and as night fell, something in the darkness coiled around him.

• Yu Qing saw the angel statue’s black eyes in a terrifying hallucination, then discovered that the rabbit statue was missing and unlocked the clue that increased the instance’s difficulty to level three.
• Yu Qing found Qian Lai under attack by bloodstained vines and led him into room 104 after noticing that loud noises were prohibited.
• Yu Qing and Qian Lai deduced that the Director had the access card they needed, and Yu Qing prepared medicine for Qian Lai’s wounded back.
• An unseen force poured the medicine onto Qian Lai, triggering an alarm that identified Yu Qing as the angel’s newest sacrifice and announced it would arrive at midnight.
• That night, Yu Qing lay trapped in darkness as a girl sang in the corridor and something cold slid up his body and coiled around his waist.

Yu Qing tried to survive the black mist boss’s attack by provoking him and then kissing him on livestream. As the tentacles loosened, Yu Qing drew a blade to strike, but the boss caught on and dragged him away, leaving his fate uncertain.

• The black mist boss restrained Yu Qing in the freezing void and tore at the earring in his left ear while the livestream system was offline.
• Yu Qing claimed the earring’s power had fused with him, distracting the boss long enough for the livestream to reconnect.
• Yu Qing freed his hands and kissed the boss, gradually loosening the tentacles around his waist.
• Yu Qing drew the weapon “I'll Cut You Down” from his system inventory and prepared to stab the boss in the heart.
• The boss seized Yu Qing with his tentacles and dragged him away, noticing the blade in his hand.

Yu Qing woke from an encounter with the BOSS to discover he had unlocked a hidden game quest, while a little girl approached his hospital ward. As midnight claimed more players, something entered the ward that was not the little girl.

• Yu Qing stabbed the tentacle holding him and fled, but the BOSS stopped him, tied his hair, and announced that their game had begun.
• Yu Qing woke in his hospital bed with the hair tie the black mist had swallowed, and the system announced his hidden quest to play games with the BOSS.
• A little girl's footsteps approached Yu Qing and Qian Lai's ward, and the door creaked open.
• In the morgue, Hu Zibiao tried to strip a female corpse for livestream tips, but she sat up and frightened him.
• At midnight, the corpses turned toward Hu Zibiao, the lights went out, and his livestream vanished as the system reported only five survivors.
• Yu Qing looked toward the ward doorway and realized the figure entering was not a little girl.

Yu Qing soothed Tangtang by ringing his bell and learned that a fake father had taken her from her mother, but the doctor arrived to collect Yu Qing as a sacrifice. When the skeleton orderlies closed in, Yu Qing handed Tangtang to Qian Lai and revealed a golden needle hidden in his arm, ready to fight back.

• Yu Qing used the bell to calm the rabbit girl, learned her name was Tangtang, and gained her trust by pretending to be her father.
• Tangtang told Yu Qing that a fake father had beaten her mother and that she had eaten candy given to the director.
• The doctor arrived with skeleton orderlies and called Yu Qing the angel's newest sacrifice, while Tangtang recognized him as the fake father and begged Yu Qing for help.
• Yu Qing threw Tangtang to Qian Lai and told him to take care of his daughter.
• Yu Qing pulled a golden needle from his arm, snapped off a skeleton's hand, pinned it by the neck, and aimed the needle at its temple.