Chapter Summaries

Shen Ru joined the Dark Night Guild’s Tea Party team with Mo Yu, while rumors spread that he had joined the guild. The Tea Party began with a deadly selection challenge to discover why the building’s immortal roses had vanished.

• Shen Ru settled into the Dark Night Guild, and his friendly outings with Sheng Ziyao fueled rumors that he had joined.
• Mo Yu decided not to correct the rumors, recognizing that Shen Ru had deliberately made himself a target.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu entered the Tea Party instance together, where Mo Yu explained that only eight of the sixteen invitees would be selected.
• The guild leaders gathered at an abandoned building, and Shen Ru faced scrutiny from Guan Wenyue of the Blue Chronicle Guild.
• The instance began and gave the players three hours to discover why the building’s immortal roses had vanished.

Shen Ru realized the other players were being lured into a false game, and he and the others found a hidden entrance that led into the Research Institute's past. There, they encountered Mrs. Leon, one of the Tea Party's hosts.

• Chu Rong entered the ruined building with a frightened boy, triggering a hide-and-seek game on the second floor.
• Guan Wenyue and the other players entered game areas, while Shen Ru, Mo Yu, Wei Lanxing, and Wen Meng stayed outside.
• Shen Ru deduced that the games were a trap because the barriers excluded the building's walls, and admitted he had wanted to watch the players struggle.
• Mo Yu led the group behind the building, where they found a sign for the Research Institute's North Entrance and triggered the main storyline.
• The scenery changed to a rose-covered institute, where Mrs. Leon ordered Shen Ru and the others to go inside and change; Wei Lanxing recognized her.

Shen Ru and the others entered the Research Institute as rose caretakers, and Shen Ru persuaded Zhao Cheng to take them to a sixth-floor laboratory. There, they discovered that the bound man connected to a rose culture vessel was Chu Rong, the Dawn Guild leader they had seen only fifteen minutes earlier.

• Mrs. Leon brought the players to the changing room, where they changed into rose caretaker uniforms.
• Zhao Cheng gave the four interns Stun Batons and mentioned that the roses had become disobedient.
• Shen Ru offered to help and persuaded Zhao Cheng to let the group observe the sixth-floor laboratories, while Mo Yu supported his plan.
• Zhao Cheng explained the Research Institute's floor-clearance system as he led them to the sixth floor.
• Zhao Cheng opened a dark laboratory containing a person joined to a rose culture vessel, and the group recognized him as Chu Rong.

Shen Ru rescued Chu Rong from the culture chamber by killing Zhao Cheng and taking his identity, then pressured Chu Rong into revealing the screening game’s rules. Chu Rong’s confession led Shen Ru to suspect that the twelve players had been tasked with deceiving the other survivors, but the game’s purpose remained unconfirmed.

• Shen Ru promised to save Chu Rong in exchange for the truth, stopped time, killed Zhao Cheng, and took his name badge.
• Mo Yu cut Chu Rong free, and Shen Ru made Chu Rong change into Zhao Cheng’s clothes before questioning him.
• Chu Rong described hiding among the rose vines and claimed he had passed out after losing the hide-and-seek game.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu confronted Chu Rong over his misleading account, and Chu Rong confessed that only four of the twelve players could survive.
• Shen Ru proposed that the players’ real task was to deceive the remaining four, and Chu Rong reacted with fear as Shen Ru challenged him.

Shen Ru and the others uncovered Chu Rong’s deal with Zhao Cheng and learned how the rose vines had been cultivated. Shen Ru and Mo Yu went to the top floor, where they found Guan Wenyue, the Blue Chronicle Guild Leader, whom Shen Ru had already decided to kill.

• Shen Ru killed Chu Rong after questioning him, while Wei Lanxing and Wen Meng learned that Shen Ru had advanced from the newcomer instance to B rank.
• Shen Ru and the others learned that the twelve players did not know one another’s identities and that humans had been fed to the rose vines in the laboratories.
• Mo Yu told the group to wait for the opposing players to gather, and a loudspeaker summoned all Senior Researchers and above to the top floor.
• Wei Lanxing and Wen Meng stayed behind to search the first three floors, while Mo Yu and Shen Ru took Disguise Item Cards and went upstairs.
• Shen Ru asked Mo Yu if he had brought him along to kill someone, and guessed that the target was whoever had gathered the players.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu found Guan Wenyue beside a glass vessel filled with scarlet liquid and tangled rose vines, and Shen Ru resolved to kill him.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu deceived Guan Wenyue’s group into investigating the walls by passing off a false theory about the rose vines. After escaping the meeting, Shen Ru told Mo Yu he knew the answer and bargained for Mo Yu’s talent.

• Guan Wenyue announced the successful cultivation of everlasting rose vines and gathered eleven players for a private meeting.
• Mo Yu, disguised as Chu Rong, claimed he had information about Mo Yu and Wei Lanxing, then made Shen Ru explain what they had supposedly said.
• Shen Ru told Guan Wenyue that the invisible barrier’s position suggested the walls were hiding something, and Guan Wenyue sent everyone to inspect them.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu slipped into an empty room, where Shen Ru confronted Mo Yu for making him answer the group’s questions.
• Shen Ru offered to reveal that he knew the answer in exchange for Mo Yu telling him his talent, and Mo Yu agreed.

Shen Ru rescued Mrs. Leon by destroying the vessel sustaining the immortal roses, then escaped Guan Wenyue and passed the Selection Phase with his companions. The chapter ends with the roses falling and humanity returning to the mortal world, while Qi Ning witnesses Shen Ru’s overwhelming power.

• Shen Ru realized that the rose vines disappeared only if Mrs. Leon survived, and he stayed on the Top Floor while Mo Yu went to alert Wei Lanxing and the others.
• Shen Ru enhanced his Stun Baton, shattered Mrs. Leon’s glass vessel, and fought Guan Wenyue after he transformed into a black bear.
• Shen Ru pierced Guan Wenyue’s eye, rescued Mrs. Leon, and teleported to the elevator before it exploded.
• The roses fell, Shen Ru reunited with Wei Lanxing and the others, and the system confirmed their answer and their success in the Selection Phase.
• Qi Ning watched Shen Ru defeat Guan Wenyue and destroy the researchers’ immortal rose project.

Shen Ru and seven other survivors entered the Leons' Tea Party instance, where they were assigned rooms in the Villa's Third Floor despite the hosts living on the Second Floor. As Shen Ru showered, the livestream viewers spotted a human eye watching him through a crack in the bathroom wall.

• The system began the Tea Party instance and awarded Shen Ru an S-Rank card that could immobilize two people for one minute.
• Shen Ru saw that Qi Ning and his companion had also survived the Selection Phase, then taunted Guan Wenyue for surviving because of him.
• The butler led the eight guests to rooms on the Villa's Third Floor and said the Leons lived on the Second Floor.
• Qi Ning noticed an apparently unused room on the Second Floor, but the butler said its status reflected the masters' wishes.
• Shen Ru showered while Mo Yu examined the room's worn furnishings and repaired cracks in the walls.
• The livestream viewers spotted a moving human eye peering through a crack in the bathroom wall at Shen Ru.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu discussed Mo Yu’s talent and the mystery of the Leons’ house, while Shen Ru secured Mo Yu’s promise to explain why Guan Wenyue had to die. Their conversation ended when a scream echoed through the corridor.

• Mo Yu told Shen Ru that his talent, Plunder, let him steal other people’s talents for half their original duration.
• Shen Ru pressed Mo Yu about whether stolen talents could be used indefinitely, but Mo Yu said he would answer only in exchange for something of equal value.
• Shen Ru leaned into Mo Yu’s embrace to test whether something was watching them, then asked for the reason behind killing Guan Wenyue and an answer to his second question.
• Mo Yu promised to tell Shen Ru both answers if Shen Ru killed Guan Wenyue.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu concluded that something might live in the cracks in the room’s walls and discussed the unanswered mysteries of the house.
• Mo Yu warned that players who refused to get involved would die, and an agonized scream rang through the corridor.

Cao Liao died after a blood-red eye appeared in the room’s gaps and tore out his eyes. Shen Ru persuaded Qi Ning to join his side and reveal how Cao Liao died, while proposing they blame Guan Wenyue and kill him in the instance.

• Qi Ning warned Cao Liao to stay away from the room’s gaps, but after Qi Ning entered the bathroom, the room darkened and a blood-red eye killed Cao Liao.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu arrived to find Cao Liao dead, and Wen Meng explained that Qi Ning could see the five minutes before a person’s death but had refused Guan Wenyue’s demand for details.
• Shen Ru and Wei Lanxing taunted Guan Wenyue, and Mo Yu denied that Dark Night intended to ostracize Lanji, forcing Guan Wenyue to apologize and leave.
• Shen Ru asked Mo Yu to pause the Livestream Room, then offered Qi Ning a way to protect his reputation and the guild by blaming Guan Wenyue for Cao Liao’s death.
• Shen Ru asked Qi Ning to join their side and explain how Cao Liao died, and Qi Ning agreed.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu’s group agreed to investigate the thing hiding in the cracks, and Shen Ru used himself as bait to draw the butler away from his room. When the body they planned to use as an excuse had vanished, Shen Ru tried to provoke the butler into revealing himself by seducing him.

• Qi Ning agreed to cooperate with Shen Ru and told the group what had happened before Cao Liao’s death.
• Shen Ru recognized that the thing in the cracks might be an NPC and proposed searching the butler’s room.
• Shen Ru volunteered as bait, rushed downstairs, and lured the butler toward Qi Ning’s room.
• Shen Ru deliberately made noise outside Guan Wenyue’s room to mislead the butler about his allegiance.
• Shen Ru found that the body had disappeared and questioned the butler about same-sex couples among the guests.
• Shen Ru told the butler that he liked men and asked him to help remove his jacket.

Shen Ru unsettled the butler by asking him to bring milk to Guan Wenyue, then grew suspicious of the butler’s remark about Mrs. Leon and roses. Meanwhile, Mo Yu and the others found evidence in the butler’s room that he was the voyeur behind the murders, and Mo Yu destroyed the drawings of Shen Ru.

• Shen Ru asked the butler to bring Guan Wenyue a glass of milk, then asked what Mrs. Leon liked; the butler said she perhaps liked roses because Mr. Leon did.
• Shen Ru recalled Mrs. Leon’s despair and suspected that the butler’s comment about roses revealed something important about Mr. Leon.
• Mo Yu, Wei Lanxing, and Qi Ning found sketches in the butler’s room depicting the Research Institute’s human experiments and the Leons’ intimate moments.
• Qi Ning discovered drawings of Shen Ru, and Mo Yu’s shadows tore those pictures apart.
• Mo Yu and the others concluded that the butler was the thing in the crack, and Mo Yu suggested that Cao Liao had been killed for seeing the butler’s distinctive grayish-white eyes.

Shen Ru told Guan Wenyue what Cao Liao had seen and revealed that the Butler was the voyeur hiding inside the cracks. He then used his hold over the Butler to make Guan Wenyue a target, leaving him to face the danger while Shen Ru watched the game unfold.

• Shen Ru visited Guan Wenyue and offered to tell him what Cao Liao had seen before he died.
• Shen Ru described Cao Liao's vision and revealed that the Butler was the voyeur inside the cracks.
• The Butler brought milk to Guan Wenyue's room, and Shen Ru flirted with him while accepting Guan Wenyue's cup.
• Shen Ru explained that he had learned the Butler was interested in him and had deliberately made Guan Wenyue an obstacle to provoke the Butler.
• Shen Ru told Guan Wenyue that he wanted him to discover who was trying to get him killed, then left him to face the Butler's possessiveness.

After discovering the Butler and Mr. Leon together, Shen Ru returned to the group shaken and shared what he had seen. He suspected the Leons’ lost daughter from the previous year might explain the Instance’s changes, and Mo Yu suggested asking Mrs. Leon.

• Shen Ru saw the Butler and Mr. Leon together in the unoccupied room beside the stairs and fled when the Butler noticed him.
• Shen Ru returned to his room pale, nearly fainted, and told Wei Lanxing, Mo Yu, and Qi Ning what he had witnessed.
• Wei Lanxing teased Shen Ru for being so startled, while Qi Ning asked whether the room was reserved for Mr. Leon and the Butler.
• Shen Ru wondered how Mr. Leon, Mrs. Leon, the Butler, and the rose vines were connected, and asked Mo Yu about last year’s Instance.
• Mo Yu said the Leons lost their only daughter when last year’s Instance ended, and Shen Ru suspected that event had changed this year’s story.
• Mo Yu proposed asking Mrs. Leon to clarify what had happened.

Shen Ru was trapped by the butler and forced to witness him with Mr. Leon, but he used Mrs. Leon’s Protection to freeze them. Mrs. Leon appeared beside the bed, and Shen Ru realized she had been with them all along.

• Mo Yu told Shen Ru that he had returned the butler’s extra gift and joked that Guan Wenyue probably had not come out ahead.
• The butler immobilized Shen Ru and took him to the room by the stairs, where he forced him to watch himself with Mr. Leon.
• Shen Ru taunted the butler by asking whether Mrs. Leon had seen the scene, then used Mrs. Leon’s Protection to freeze the two men.
• Mrs. Leon appeared beside the bed, sobbing, as her cloying floral scent filled the room.
• Shen Ru recognized that Mrs. Leon had been beside them whenever he smelled that strange floral fragrance on the butler.

Shen Ru learned that Mrs. Leon’s suffering was tied to her daughter’s death and confronted the butler, killing him with a dagger. He returned to his room with the dead man, where his companions misunderstood the compromising scene before he vomited.

• Shen Ru questioned Mrs. Leon and confirmed that Mr. Leon’s behavior had changed after their daughter died.
• Mrs. Leon refused Shen Ru’s offer to kill the men, then disappeared when the countdown ended.
• Shen Ru regained control of his body, teleported to the butler, and punched him before declaring he wanted to kill him.
• Shen Ru stabbed the butler in the throat, but the man offered no resistance and died while holding him.
• Shen Ru returned to his room with the butler’s naked, bloody body, where Wei Lanxing asked if he was attracted to older men.
• Shen Ru tried to explain that the scene had been an accident, then vomited.

Shen Ru learned that Mrs. Leon had chosen to remain with her husband despite his cruelty, then attended the Tea Party as Mr. Leon accused the Players of finding his Butler’s murderer. The system launched an Ultimate Mission to identify and hand over the killer, and Mr. Leon’s hostile stare made Shen Ru realize he was the obvious target.

• Mo Yu carried Shen Ru to the sofa after Shen recovered from vomiting, and Shen explained that he had encountered Mrs. Leon.
• Wei Lanxing revealed that Mrs. Leon’s daughter had died after falling from a mountain during the previous Instance, and the group discussed the connection between the two Instances.
• At the evening Tea Party, Shen Ru noticed Guan Wenyue watching him mockingly as Mr. and Mrs. Leon appeared before the guests.
• Mr. Leon announced that his Butler had been murdered and asked the guests to find the culprit.
• The system triggered an Ultimate Mission requiring the Players to identify and hand over the Butler’s murderer within one hour, while Mr. Leon stared at Shen Ru with open hostility.

Shen Ru killed Xi Rui and Guan Wenyue during the final chase, ending the game and earning the S-Rank Card, Mrs. Leon's Tears. As the instance prepared to eject him, he regretted that he had not also killed Mr. Leon.

• Shen Ru shoved Mo Yu away and ran toward the woods behind the Villa to prevent Mo Yu from intervening.
• Shen Ru ambushed Xi Rui from a tree, killed him, and hid underwater in the pond.
• Guan Wenyue found Xi Rui and approached the pond, where Shen Ru dragged him into the water and killed him.
• The system declared the game over and awarded Shen Ru the S-Rank Card, Mrs. Leon's Tears.
• Shen Ru looked at the bodies and said he wished he had killed Mr. Leon too.

Shen Ru completed the Leons' Tea Party instance, revealed that he had a talent, and earned the top settlement ranking with generous rewards. After Mo Yu hijacked players' screens to ask Shen Ru to contact him, Shen Ru was left with a new, unsettling invitation.

• After Qi Ning asked whether he had a talent, Shen Ru confirmed that he did while Mo Yu watched him with excited interest.
• Shen Ru received 41,500 points and several cards, including the S-Rank Card Mrs. Leon's Tears, after clearing the instance.
• Players watched Shen Ru take first place in the rankings, while the Blue Chronicle Guild fell to fourth after its Guild Leader's death.
• Mo Yu appeared on players' Light Brain screens and told Shen Ru to contact him because he still owed him a few things.

Shen Ru confronted Mo Yu about his abilities and motives after Mo Yu came to his home. Mo Yu revealed that he had killed Guan Wenyue because Guan would not obey, then tried to make Shen Ru his obedient pet, leaving Shen Ru furious and resisting him.

• Shen Ru ended Mo Yu's call after recognizing that Mo Yu was using his backing to pressure him into joining Dark Night.
• Mo Yu asked Gu Changming what to call a relationship in which he enjoyed Shen Ru's reactions, and Gu Changming suggested keeping a dog.
• Mo Yu accepted the suggestion and asked Gu Changming to send him Shen Ru's location.
• Mo Yu visited Shen Ru, who asked him to explain his abilities and motives.
• Mo Yu explained the limits on his Plunder talent and said Guan Wenyue had died because he would not obey.
• Shen Ru tried to punch Mo Yu, but Mo Yu restrained his hands and said he liked obedient puppies; Shen Ru called him a pervert.