Chapter Summaries

Shen Ru and Mo Yu spent the day enjoying the Entertainment Channel before visiting the Silent Photo Studio, where a haunted portrait showed a fourth, grotesque figure to anyone who would soon disappear. They saw it too, and paranormal streamer Su Ziqiu approached them as their fans recognized them on his livestream.

• Shen Ru and Mo Yu toured the Entertainment Channel, where Mo Yu kept forcing Shen Ru to kiss him whenever other people tried to approach.
• After dark, Shen Ru and Mo Yu went to the Silent Photo Studio, whose visitors feared a portrait that made anyone who saw four figures vanish the next day.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu examined the portrait and saw four shadows, including a mangled face in the willow branches.
• Su Ziqiu approached Shen Ru and Mo Yu to ask whether they could see four figures in the photograph.
• Su Ziqiu's livestream captured their faces, prompting viewers to recognize them and flood the chat with excited comments.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu were drawn into a new game instance called “A Family of Three,” while Entertainment Channel players received invitations to watch. Shen Ru found himself alone in a rain-soaked forest and attacked Sang Ming, unaware that a monster was looming behind him.

• Shen Ru told Su Ziqiu that he and Mo Yu were Game Channel players who had sneaked out to experience a horror setting, then Su Ziqiu and the two of them vanished.
• Every Entertainment Channel player received an invitation to watch the “A Family of Three” game instance, and Shen Ru awoke alone in a forest as the livestream opened to viewers.
• Shen Ru found that the Shop’s Cards were still under development, though his talent worked, and realized the new setting was being built as a second Infinite Channel.
• Shen Ru spotted a grotesque creature near a crooked tree during flashes of lightning and prepared to attack it.
• When rustling sounded behind him, Shen Ru punched Sang Ming in the grass, breaking bones, while a monster appeared over Shen Ru’s head.

Shen Ru forced Sang Ming to guide him through the haunted jungle toward the Silent Photo Studio, then killed him after they reached Mo Yu and Su Ziqiu. He left Su Ziqiu shocked by his brutal actions.

• Sang Ming followed Shen Ru and Mo Yu into the instance, where Shen Ru beat a ghost to death after it attacked him.
• Shen Ru threatened Sang Ming and made him use his phone as a flashlight while guiding them through the jungle toward the Silent Photo Studio.
• Shen Ru and Sang Ming reached the studio, where Mo Yu and Su Ziqiu were waiting at the entrance.
• As Sang Ming tried to approach Mo Yu, Shen Ru struck him with a piece of stone and told him he had made it out of the jungle alive.
• Shen Ru smashed Sang Ming's eyes with the stone, and Su Ziqiu asked what he was doing.

After Mo Yu kissed Shen Ru, the players began the test instance A Family of Three and entered the Silent Photo Studio. The first-stage mission sent them searching for a hidden family, and the chapter ended when a hissing sound came from the door Shen Ru had knocked on.

• Mo Yu pulled Shen Ru to his feet and kissed him after Dark Shadow disposed of the corpse.
• The system announced the start of the test instance and assigned the players the mission to find a family of three in the Silent Photo Studio.
• Shen Ru, Mo Yu, Su Ziqiu, Ou Ning, Mu Xiaoxiao, and another player entered the photo studio and examined its chained doors.
• All four doors shook, and a pale hand struck one of the locks before Su Ziqiu stopped Shen Ru from knocking again.
• The players heard a hissing sound coming from the door Shen Ru had knocked on.

Shen Ru uncovered the husband hidden beneath the human skin covering a door in the Silent Photo Studio. After the players discovered the husband, Shen Ru encouraged Ou Ning to search the other doors, using her as a guinea pig while Mo Yu watched.

• Ou Ning told the players that something had pulled her skirt, and Shen Ru offered to show them where the ghost was.
• Shen Ru had Su Ziqiu and the others touch the door, revealing that its surface felt like soft human skin.
• Shen Ru stabbed the door with scissors, and the skin began to writhe as the lights went out.
• Shen Ru tore away the human skin and exposed the husband's face beneath it, prompting the system to announce their progress.
• Ou Ning approached Mo Yu and wondered whether the other family members were behind the other doors, and Shen Ru urged her to investigate for survival points.
• Mo Yu asked what Shen Ru was doing, and Shen Ru said he was using Ou Ning as a guinea pig for trial and error.

Ou Ning and Fang Wenhong searched the other doors for clues, but Ou Ning was killed by animated human skin. Shen Ru confronted Fang Wenhong for blaming him, while Mo Yu protected Shen Ru from a strange poster; Su Ziqiu and Mu Xiaoxiao reacted to the couple's intimacy.

• Fang Wenhong joined Ou Ning in stripping human skin from the remaining doors, but they found no clues.
• The human skins surrounded Ou Ning, immobilized and silenced her, then suffocated her to death before she and the skins vanished.
• Fang Wenhong accused Shen Ru of failing to save Ou Ning and warned the other players that Shen Ru might abandon them too.
• Shen Ru teleported to Fang Wenhong, slammed him into a wall, and told him his survival was his own choice.
• Mo Yu wiped Shen Ru's hand and sent Dark Shadow to shred a poster that had caught Shen Ru's attention.
• Su Ziqiu and Mu Xiaoxiao remarked that they were relieved they did not like men.

Shen Ru entered a photo studio room where the Puppeteer used photographs of his past to provoke him with an offer to restore his lost family. Shen Ru rejected the offer and attacked a false version of himself, but when he reappeared, the players were surrounded by copies of him.

• Shen Ru chose the door beside the vanished poster, and the players entered a dark photo studio.
• Shen Ru found photographs recreating his former life, and the Puppeteer offered to make that life real, including Mo Yu.
• Shen Ru tore apart the photograph of his parents and revealed that his father had beaten his mother to death.
• The Puppeteer sent a false Shen Ru toward him, and Shen Ru savagely beat the NPC.
• Shen Ru reappeared beside the other players as more copies of him approached and surrounded them.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu survived the room of copies by killing the fakes, then left through the opened door with the other players. Outside, Su Ziqiu asked Shen Ru to include him in their next move, and Shen Ru agreed to accompany Fang Wenhong when he needed to use the bathroom, with Su Ziqiu joining them.

• Mo Yu comforted Shen Ru after the young man emerged from his ordeal, and Shen Ru embraced him and said he had enjoyed himself and cared only about Mo Yu.
• Shen Ru attacked and killed the fake Shen Rus with Su Ziqiu's scissors while Mo Yu's shadows helped finish them off, causing the exit door to open.
• The players left the room, and Su Ziqiu asked Shen Ru to make sure he stayed involved in whatever they did next.
• Fang Wenhong admitted that he needed to pee, and Shen Ru offered to go with him; Su Ziqiu insisted on joining them too.

Shen Ru led Su Ziqiu and Fang Wenhong into the women’s restroom, where a mirror showed Su Ziqiu a vision of his gruesome death. The group discovered Fang Wenhong apparently dead in a stall, leaving Su Ziqiu horrified by Shen Ru’s amused warning.

• After the restroom door unlocked, Shen Ru chose the room marked not to enter the women’s restroom, and he, Su Ziqiu, and Fang Wenhong went inside.
• Shen Ru revealed that the restroom signs had been switched and said he had knowingly entered the women’s restroom.
• Su Ziqiu leaned toward the stained mirror and saw a vision of a woman killing him and using his body as a toilet plunger.
• Shen Ru told Su Ziqiu to check on Fang Wenhong, and Su Ziqiu saw Fang’s wide-open eyes beneath the stall door.
• Shen Ru warned Su Ziqiu that Fang Wenhong might already be dead, leaving Su Ziqiu screaming in fear.

Fang Wenhong died after misreading the restroom’s bloody warnings, and Shen Ru entered the stall to solve the same deadly puzzle. He escaped after discovering the grotesque creature beneath the floor, but it pursued him and Su Ziqiu toward the exit.

• Fang Wenhong ignored the bloody warnings, turned toward the stall door, and died when the restroom trap punished his choice.
• Shen Ru opened the stall and found Fang Wenhong’s corpse, then accepted a wooden stick from Su Ziqiu and entered the stall.
• Shen Ru reasoned out the warnings’ shifting point of reference and looked at the ceiling, where the words declared the game over.
• The floor transformed into a decomposing woman’s body, and Shen Ru used the stick before breaking the lock and fleeing the stall.
• Shen Ru warned Su Ziqiu that the creature was about to explode, and both ran toward the exit with it close behind.

Shen Ru and Su Ziqiu escaped the restroom and arrived at Shen Ru’s former home, where his mother welcomed them. Su Ziqiu’s camera revealed that the woman and the blood-soaked apartment looked nothing like they did in person.

• The surroundings changed, and Shen Ru told Su Ziqiu they were going to his former home, where his mother should be making dinner.
• Shen Ru and Su Ziqiu rode the elevator to the thirtieth floor while an advertisement showed a cheerful family preparing a meal.
• Shen Ru told Su Ziqiu to turn on his camera as soon as they left the elevator and record everything.
• Shen Ru knocked on his former apartment door, and a woman with red eyes welcomed him inside.
• Su Ziqiu saw through his phone camera that the woman had been brutally mutilated and the living room was covered in blood.

Shen Ru relived the night his father killed his mother and forced him to kill him, while Su Ziqiu recorded the gruesome scene. Mo Yu and Mu Xiaoxiao arrived afterward, and Mo Yu embraced Shen Ru’s malice, declaring that he wanted to share hell with him rather than save him.

• Shen Ru welcomed Su Ziqiu into his home, where his mother served a meal that recalled the death of Shen Ru’s childhood puppy.
• Shen Ru’s father came home, forced Shen Ru to close his eyes while he abused and killed Shen Ru’s mother, then made Shen Ru take the knife and kill him.
• Shen Ru tended to his mother’s hair as the room’s shadows writhed and the lights went out.
• Mo Yu and Mu Xiaoxiao arrived and saw the dead parents beside the dining table, while Shen Ru introduced them as his family.
• Mo Yu approached Shen Ru, wiped blood from his face, and asked to watch the recorded scene with him.
• Mo Yu guided Shen Ru’s hands to his neck and said he wanted to revel in hell with him, not save him.

Shen Ru resisted the urge to kill Mo Yu and instead asked him to save him, while their dark fog hid them from Su Ziqiu and Mu Xiaoxiao. Outside it, the two companions faced the reanimated corpse of Shen Ru’s mother and tried to escape.

• Shen Ru chose to keep Mo Yu alive and entangled with him, then whispered, “Save me.”
• Mo Yu summoned dark shadows that sealed the pair away from the outside world.
• Su Ziqiu discovered that his phone had run out of battery, and Mu Xiaoxiao struck him after he startled her.
• A chopstick appeared on the floor, and the growing stench made Su Ziqiu and Mu Xiaoxiao realize something had awakened.
• Shen Ru’s mother’s corpse transformed into a monster, ate the skin from Shen Ru’s father’s face, and turned toward them.
• Su Ziqiu and Mu Xiaoxiao ran for the front door as the monster approached, while Su Ziqiu shouted at it to stop.

Shen Ru and the others destroyed the swollen corpse, completing the first objective, but a scene-transport malfunction trapped them in the house. Shen Ru traced the exit to the mirror in the master bathroom, where the Puppeteer appeared and greeted him.

• Shen Ru lured the swollen corpse into the master bedroom, where it burst apart, and the system announced that the players had found the family of three in the Photo Studio.
• The system failed to transport the players and warned that the scene would close in five minutes, forcing them to resolve the situation themselves.
• Shen Ru suspected that the game's lack of malice had deprived the system of the capacity to operate, and he searched for the medium that could let them leave the illusion.
• Shen Ru entered the master bathroom and found the correct mirror, where the Puppeteer appeared and called him his Muse.

Shen Ru confronted the Puppeteer through a mirror and learned that the Puppeteer had shared his Settlement Space from the beginning. He used the Puppeteer’s obsession and need for his malice to set terms for drawing him into a direct confrontation.

• The Puppeteer revealed that Shen Ru’s Settlement Space was the place where he had created the game and said he had given it to Shen Ru because he felt connected to him.
• Shen Ru provoked the Puppeteer about his feelings and learned that he believed Shen Ru belonged to the Infinite Channel and to him.
• Shen Ru deduced that the Puppeteer needed his malice because the Puppeteer’s attempts to create a second Infinite Channel were failing.
• Shen Ru offered to join the Puppeteer if he brought his people and resources to create a thrilling game instead of hiding behind a mirror.
• Shen Ru insulted the Puppeteer and ordered him to prepare properly, exploiting his apparent enjoyment of humiliation.

Shen Ru confronted the Puppeteer in the mirror, then was pulled away by Mo Yu, whose jealousy flared when he learned Shen Ru had found a way out. Shen Ru concealed how he had manipulated the Puppeteer and left Mo Yu agreeing to kill him in the next instance, before asking for another kiss.

• Shen Ru provoked the Puppeteer by mimicking his father's commanding tone, and the Puppeteer promised to meet him again.
• Mo Yu burst into the bathroom and embraced Shen Ru, who retched after wondering whether the Puppeteer had been manipulating him too.
• Shen Ru told Mo Yu he had found a way out, but Mo Yu stopped Su Ziqiu from explaining and said he would not risk Shen Ru for a test instance.
• Mo Yu kissed Shen Ru and demanded to know everything he had discussed with the Puppeteer.
• Shen Ru claimed the Puppeteer had invited him to join and promised to show sincerity next time, while hiding how he had drawn out the Puppeteer's motives.
• Shen Ru told Mo Yu they would kill the Puppeteer in the next instance, then asked Mo Yu to kiss him again.

After the Photo Studio resumed business, Shen Ru and the others discovered that dead players and NPCs had returned among the crowd. Shen Ru followed Meng Yu into a private room, hoping her history of a botched cosmetic procedure would help him identify the fourth person in the photo.

• Shen Ru and Mo Yu returned to the busy Photo Studio after the transport gateway restarted.
• Su Ziqiu pointed out Sang Ming, and Shen Ru saw other dead players and NPCs walking through the studio as if nothing had happened.
• Mu Xiaoxiao told Shen Ru that the saleswoman Meng Yu had died by suicide after a botched cosmetic procedure.
• Shen Ru asked Meng Yu about solo portraits and followed her into a room, while Mo Yu watched him go.
• Su Ziqiu reassured Mu Xiaoxiao that Shen Ru would be fine and joked that she could kick his detached head around like a ball.

Shen Ru investigated the Photo Studio by posing as an entertainment streamer, then realized Meng Yu’s excessive pursuit of beauty set her apart from the dead players. He pressed her to reveal how he could become as perfectly proportioned as she was.

• Meng Yu gave Shen Ru the Photo Studio’s sales pitch, and he claimed price did not matter while she went to fetch sample photos.
• Shen Ru posed for photographs as the Photographer secretly sent some alluring shots elsewhere.
• Meng Yu pointed out supposed flaws in Shen Ru’s appearance and prepared to have the Photo Retoucher adjust them.
• Shen Ru reasoned that Meng Yu’s cosmetic surgery and greed for beauty distinguished her from the other players.
• Shen Ru told Meng Yu that he wanted his body adjusted too and asked her what she knew about becoming perfectly proportioned.

Shen Ru discovered that the Photo Studio’s beauty hall fed on the players’ greed and malice, then set it ablaze and confronted Meng Yu. As the burning players poured out, Mo Yu reached Shen Ru and asked him to go home.

• Meng Yu led Shen Ru into a vast hall where players mutilated themselves for beauty and healed their wounds with ointment.
• Shen Ru realized the hall was the building’s evil-thought processing center and that the instance was testing whether the building could sustain the game.
• Shen Ru used his lighter to sever the supply connection and ignite the hall, then attacked Meng Yu and accused her of choosing her own destruction.
• Su Ziqiu opened the fourth door as flaming, charred players rushed out, and Mu Xiaoxiao fought one of them.
• Mo Yu extinguished the spreading fire with dark shadows, found Shen Ru amid the flames, and offered to take him home.

After the test instance shut down, Mo Yu showed jealousy over Shen Ru’s popularity and teased that he might lock him up. Shen Ru later entered another instance with Meng Yizhi, where Gu Changming arrived with a message from Mo Yu, and Shen Ru chose to return, curious about Mo Yu’s intentions.

• The test instance shut down, and the players returned to the real Silent Photo Studio as spectators watched the livestream replay and mocked Su Ziqiu and Mu Xiaoxiao.
• The crowd shouted that Shen Ru was their wife, making Mo Yu jealous; Shen Ru teased him, and Mo Yu admitted he was jealous before kissing him and asking if he should lock him up.
• Shen Ru visited Meng Yizhi after returning to the Infinite Channel, checked that his Hot Pot Base was untouched, and persuaded him to enter an instance together.
• Gu Changming appeared in the instance after Shen Ru crushed a monster’s head and told him that Mo Yu said to return when he had finished having fun.
• Shen Ru recalled the photo and message Mo Yu had received from the Puppeteer, wondered why Mo Yu had not come after him, and agreed to go back with Gu Changming.