Chapter Summaries

Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao discovered that they saw the people around them differently, deepening the mystery of the absurd instance. After the system tasked them with reaching school on time, Shen Ru eyed the only bus on the crowded street and asked Sheng Ziyao if he knew how to fake getting hit.

• Shen Ru realized that Sheng Ziyao saw faces on the two mothers, while Shen Ru could not see theirs.
• Sheng Ziyao mistook Shen Ru’s cross-dressed appearance for a beautiful woman and praised his looks.
• The system instructed Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao to continue the character quest by arriving at school on time.
• Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao found a crowded street with only one packed bus, despite the mother telling them to take a taxi.
• Shen Ru said he could drive, then asked Sheng Ziyao if he knew how to fake getting hit.

Shen Ru got the bus driver to flee, then drove the bus to Third Middle School with Sheng Ziyao and Meng Yizhi aboard. At the school, he made the Players realize the Instance was conditioning them to accept absurdities, and told Mo Yu he loved this world.

• Shen Ru shoved Sheng Ziyao onto the bus windshield, then used his Talent to frighten the driver into abandoning the bus.
• Shen Ru boarded the empty bus and found Meng Yizhi in the back, then drove despite having no experience with a manual transmission.
• Shen Ru drove the bus to Third Middle School, where the NPCs ignored the commotion and only the Players reacted.
• Mo Yu noticed Shen Ru looked beautiful, prompting Shen Ru to ask why nobody had noticed his women's clothes.
• Shen Ru and Wen Meng realized the Instance was making them grow accustomed to its absurdities and stripping away their hope.
• Shen Ru looked at Mo Yu and said he loved this world.

Shen Ru learned that the school world was affecting him with disturbing visions and violent impulses, then attended a grotesque flag-raising ceremony featuring a bloodstained child’s dress. At his request, Mo Yu flung the dress into the crowd, triggering panic and a deadly stampede.

• Shen Ru told Mo Yu that he could not see the faces of anyone except players and admitted he had wanted to crash the car with everyone inside.
• Shen Ru received a mission to serve as flag bearer, while Mo Yu accompanied him to the sports field.
• Shen Ru and another player raised a blood-soaked child’s dress covered in tiny handprints as the school flag.
• Shen Ru asked Mo Yu to throw the dress onto a student, and Mo Yu’s ability sent it plunging into the crowd.
• The student who caught the dress screamed and flung it away, setting off a panic in which students were crushed and injured as Qi Ning pulled Qian Xiwen to safety.

Shen Ru unleashed Mo Yu’s blood-mist ability across the school, then used a captive student and a brutal threat to force him to reveal the truth. The student said the world was not complete and that they were all living on an enormous island.

• Mo Yu’s ability filled the school with blood mist and spider lilies as students and Players fled in panic.
• Shen Ru entered the chaos, seized a male student, and ordered Sheng Ziyao to restrain him beneath the flag-raising platform.
• When the captive refused to speak, Shen Ru killed another student in front of him and threatened him with a blade until he gave in.
• Qian Xiwen realized Shen Ru had caused the catastrophe to expose the students’ hidden emotions and their connection to society.
• The captive revealed that everyone had been deceived and that their world was actually an enormous island.

Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao were summoned to the Discipline Office after the flag-raising ceremony, where Shen Ru killed the predatory director while searching for a child hiding in the room. The chapter left them facing the director’s severed head and confirmed that he was blind in one eye.

• Shen Ru questioned a boy about the island’s rules and the children’s lives before age five, but the boy went into a violent frenzy and Shen Ru killed him.
• Shen Ru and Wen Meng suspected that something horrifying happened to the children before they turned five, and the loudspeaker ordered Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao to report to the Discipline Office.
• Mo Yu received a system task, while Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao followed a damp, sinister corridor to the office.
• The discipline director accused Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao of disrupting school order, and Shen Ru provoked him before using his appearance to lure him away from a child hiding beneath the desk.
• Shen Ru killed the director when he approached, then saw that the man was blind in one eye.

Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao found the injured An'an beneath a desk after Shen Ru killed the man in the room. After healing her, Shen Ru questioned her about what happened, and An'an begged him to save her friends, who had also lost blood.

• Shen Ru killed the man, and he and Sheng Ziyao discovered An'an hiding beneath the desk with a severe injury.
• Sheng Ziyao tried to approach An'an with a healing potion, but Shen Ru stopped him and spoke to her instead.
• Shen Ru warned An'an that he could save or kill her, then gave her the potion after she agreed to cooperate.
• An'an said her name was An'an and explained that Master had been playing a game with her when the knocking scared her into crying out.
• An'an begged Shen Ru to save her friends, who had lost blood, and Shen Ru promised to take her back while he found help.

Shen Ru took An'an to the water room after realizing she had been trying to lead him there, and intimidated her when she touched his neck and mentioned Master. Mo Yu appeared at the destination, where An'an asked whether he was Shen Ru’s boyfriend and whether they did the same things she had been doing in the room.

• Shen Ru agreed to carry An'an to where she lived, and Sheng Ziyao offered to carry her before she demanded Shen Ru instead.
• As they walked through the Long Corridor, An'an touched Shen Ru’s artery and asked if he had cut Master there too.
• Shen Ru threatened to burn down the building, and An'an fell silent and said she did not want to see it.
• An'an led Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao to the water room, where Sheng Ziyao heard something besides running water.
• Mo Yu emerged from the water room, and Sheng Ziyao told him he had been protecting Shen Ru.
• An'an asked whether Mo Yu was Shen Ru’s boyfriend and whether they did the things she had been doing in the room, leaving the group stunned.

Shen Ru found a hidden child-sized passage in the water room and used the school loudspeaker to draw the other Players into investigating it. The system updated the main quest, forcing them to join him as Mo Yu accompanied him toward the broadcast room.

• Mo Yu arrived in the water room and teased Shen Ru about what he had been doing with Sheng Ziyao, while Shen Ru confronted him for keeping him under surveillance.
• An'an revealed a hidden door beneath a loose tile and entered the child-sized passage after asking Shen Ru to come find her.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu flirted, and Shen Ru asked Mo Yu to take him to the broadcast room.
• Shen Ru announced over the loudspeaker that he had found a hidden passage, prompting the system to order all Players to investigate the school's secrets with him.
• Meng Yizhi realized Shen Ru had used the announcement to force the other Players into the investigation.

Shen Ru persuaded the players to confront the hidden passage and had Wen Meng use her talent to widen its entrance. The passage collapsed, revealing a door marked “Earthly Paradise,” whose ominous carvings hinted at the danger beyond.

• Shen Ru stabbed a player who complained, then convinced the group that they should face the hidden passage together by revealing the bloodied girl in the white dress.
• Qi Ning explained that the school taught students proper values and respect for themselves, prompting Sheng Ziyao to describe how the lessons forced them to revisit childhood abuse.
• Shen Ru rejected Qian Xiwen’s objection that widening the passage might endanger the children and said he had the right to decide their fate.
• Mo Yu asked Wen Meng to use her talent to widen the hidden entrance and promised to take responsibility.
• Wen Meng’s blast collapsed the passage and revealed a heavy white door carved with embracing children and the words “Earthly Paradise.”

Shen Ru led the Players through a secret passage, subdued a mysterious child, and persuaded her to show them the way out. They emerged in the Palace, where an attendant announced that some Players had failed the assessment and had them executed.

• Shen Ru realized someone extra was in the tunnel, and the group found a girl named An'an staring at him.
• When the girl began screaming and shaking the tunnel, Shen Ru slammed her against the wall and threatened her into silence.
• Shen Ru soothed the girl and coaxed her into opening a passage to the Palace.
• Qian Xiwen told Shen Ru she had misjudged his difficult personality, while Meng Yizhi worried about her interpretation.
• An attendant welcomed the Players to the Palace, declared that some had failed the assessment, and summoned shadows that beheaded them.

Shen Ru and the others discovered that children held power in the Palace and were being exploited, then entered an underground auction where children were among the crowd’s possessions. Enraged by the scene, Shen Ru began destroying the venue, causing the game to accelerate the scenario to its second day.

• Shen Ru told Mo Yu that he could see the faces of players, children, and dead people, and noticed a satisfied wheelchair user being pushed through the Hall.
• At the hot spring, Shen Ru and Mo Yu concluded that the little girl had been monitoring them and that children on the first floor were receiving services from disabled adults.
• Shen Ru changed into a scarlet gauze dress and followed the Long Corridor to a crowded underground auction, where he found Mo Yu onstage.
• Shen Ru stepped onto Mo Yu’s shoes and declared the place dirty and uninteresting, then began bringing down its walls.
• The game detected Shen Ru’s violent breach of the scenario and announced that the story would advance to the second day in three seconds.

Shen Ru realized that the island’s school indoctrinated people into obeying its rules and decided to target the school to challenge the system. After killing the woman posing as his mother, he went to Sheng Ziyao’s room and attacked his “Mom” too, leaving Sheng Ziyao horrified.

• Shen Ru tore down a loyalty award certificate and concluded that only people loyal to the island’s rules were allowed to leave school.
• Shen Ru confronted his eyeless “Mom,” rejected her insistence that he had to attend school, and strangled her to death.
• Shen Ru decided that changing the island’s values required starting with the school, then went to Sheng Ziyao’s room.
• Shen Ru struck Sheng Ziyao’s “Mom” with a baseball bat and hit her twice more to make sure she was dead.
• Sheng Ziyao stared at Shen Ru in shock and asked whether he had finally gone crazy.

Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao reached school after hijacking a bus, but Shen Ru slipped away from the crowd and discovered a blood-soaked monster in the teachers' office. Mo Yu caught him from behind as he witnessed the monster reveal jars of preserved human skins.

• Shen Ru explained that their dead mother was insignificant to the Instance, then decided to leave the driving to a professional and take the bus by force.
• Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao hijacked a bus and released the driver at the school gates.
• The Players followed the system task to return to their assigned classrooms, while Shen Ru turned away from Sheng Ziyao and headed down a corridor.
• Shen Ru peered into the teachers' office and saw a blood-drenched monster open a hidden door containing jars of preserved human skins.
• Mo Yu caught Shen Ru from behind, covered his mouth, and told him not to move.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu killed a monster formed from human malice, then returned to the classroom with the teacher’s severed head. Shen Ru took over the class and warned the students that he intended to control them.

• Shen Ru and Mo Yu entered the bathroom room, where Mo Yu restrained the monster and Shen Ru killed it with a dagger.
• Mo Yu explained that the monster was nourished by human malice and that the Instance gave that malice a visible form.
• Meng Yizhi learned that Shen Ru had gone to the bathroom with Mo Yu and feared for his sister-in-law.
• Shen Ru entered the classroom carrying the dead teacher’s head and announced that he would teach for the next few days.
• Shen Ru stabbed his dagger into the lectern and told the students he was there to control them.

Shen Ru terrorized and brainwashed the students into seeing him as their savior, then questioned them about the Underground Palace. Their answers revealed that the Third Floor was prepared for transfer students invited to meet “Daddy.”

• Shen Ru killed students while teaching that they needed to earn meaning and his praise, and the surviving students began adoring him.
• Shen Ru asked the students how to enter the Underground Palace, and one said the proper entrance was in the principal's office.
• A student explained that the first floor served disabled people, the second served elites who liked children, and the third was associated with “Daddy.”
• A student said they invited transfer students to visit Daddy, leading Sheng Ziyao to realize that the Third Floor had been prepared for the Players.

Shen Ru provoked the Third Floor’s monstrous powerful figure into revealing itself, completing the players’ mission and buying time to escape the instance. He used Mrs. Leon’s Protection to immobilize Mo Yu and the monster, then exited the game as the instance closed.

• Shen Ru spent the final days teaching the NPC students that death began a new life, and on the seventh night he directed a mass suicide while Sheng Ziyao played Moonlight Sonata.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu danced amid the bloody campus until the Third Floor’s powerful figure appeared as a huge mass of human flesh, and the system announced that the mission was complete.
• Shen Ru asked the creature about An'an and learned that she had become one with it; it then showed him fragments of human skin and tissue.
• Shen Ru pulled Mo Yu close, told him he both adored and loathed his strength, and used Mrs. Leon’s Protection to immobilize him and the monster.
• Shen Ru waved to the players and exited the game before the instance automatically closed.

After clearing the Instance, Shen Ru used an A-rank disguise Card to hide from Mo Yu and stayed at Meng Yizhi’s home. On the sixth evening, Mo Yu found him and confronted him about using temptation for revenge.

• Shen Ru received 46,000 points, advanced from B to A rank, and was denied the S-rank reward for clearing the Instance through violence.
• Shen Ru used the Disguise Card to leave the Settlement Space as a woman and met Meng Yizhi in the Live-Streaming Hall.
• Shen Ru revealed his identity to Meng Yizhi, threatened him into keeping quiet, and moved into his home.
• Shen Ru stayed at Meng Yizhi’s home for five days while Mo Yu searched for him.
• Mo Yu arrived during dinner on the sixth evening, lifted Shen Ru with his shadows, and said he liked that Shen Ru had tempted him for revenge.

After Mo Yu bit Shen Ru in a secluded room, Shen Ru visited Sheng Ziyao to ask what Mo Yu did for the game system. He left with a mischievous idea as Mo Yu watched from upstairs.

• Mo Yu sealed Shen Ru and himself inside a room with shadows, bit Shen Ru's neck, and thanked him for the meal.
• Meng Yizhi sent Sheng Ziyao ten thousand points as wedding gift money, and Sheng Ziyao accepted before asking what the payment meant.
• Players discussed Mo Yu's display of power, while Mo Yu considered whether Shen Ru's blood carried the rose's distinctive fragrance.
• Shen Ru went to Sheng Ziyao's room to probe him about Mo Yu's work for the system, but Sheng Ziyao noticed the bite marks on his neck.
• Gu Changming spotted Sheng Ziyao inspecting Shen Ru's neck, and Mo Yu ordered Sheng Ziyao to submit his overdue instance report that night.
• Shen Ru met Mo Yu's gaze and began forming a wicked idea as the bite on his neck stung.

Shen Ru teased Mo Yu into revealing that he worked with the system to handle problems and preserve balance between the game’s channels. After learning this, Shen Ru left wondering why the system had chosen Mo Yu and whether the channels might someday merge.

• After Gu Changming took Sheng Ziyao away, Shen Ru approached Mo Yu and challenged him to beg before answering questions.
• Shen Ru bit Mo Yu’s neck and kissed him, then asked what deal he had with the system.
• Mo Yu explained that he helped the system handle problems and could not disrupt the balance between channels without the game’s permission; the system granted him a unique Talent to help him do so.
• Shen Ru refused Mo Yu’s request to ask a second question and warned him not to sneak into his bed.
• Alone, Shen Ru considered how the channel barriers might be crossed with the game’s permission and wondered why the system had chosen Mo Yu.

Shen Ru entered the class A instance My Day with Mo Yu and other players, then realized their underground parking garage was an imagined scene created from the instance’s prompts. He and Mo Yu killed themselves to break free of the scene, leaving the players’ next step unresolved.

• Shen Ru woke in a car in an underground parking garage, heard the instance’s story about a family trapped in a mall, and nearly attacked Mo Yu when he opened the car door.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu joined the other players, including Qiu Wen and Lu Yang, who debated whether to investigate the garage or head to the mall.
• A red ball bounced toward the players, but Lu Yang’s blade revealed it was a bloody human head, and a woman admitted she had imagined that horror-story cliché.
• Shen Ru concluded that the garage was an imagined scene rather than a real setting and killed four players, whose corpses and blood promptly vanished.
• Shen Ru embraced Mo Yu and stabbed them both through the skull, apparently attempting to escape the imagined scene.