Biodata
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Zhang Shan (张山) |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | Around thirty 36 |
| Occupation/Role | Survival-game player 36 55 |
| Residence within Happy Community | Apartment C602 74 82 |
| Status | Deceased; stabbed by the resident of C206 83 |
| First Appearance | First named and described in Chapter 36 36 |
Appearance
- Rugged, masculine facial features 36.
- Frequently wears a friendly smile; during the eye-contamination incident, that smile appears insincere 72.
Personality
Zhang Shan initially voices practical concerns about the group's survival. Believing Chu Qingjiu and Qi Wu to be brothers, he worries that Qi Wu's behavior and Chu's poor health might hold the other players back. His friendly manner conceals a calculating streak; when the group reunites in Happy Community, Chu regards him as a “smiling schemer” 36 55.
Facing death, Zhang becomes violent and coercive. After discovering that he is contaminated, he attacks Lin Ran, then threatens to expose Chu's concealed abilities unless Chu saves him. Later, his apparent influence over Spider Baby makes him increasingly defiant: he hopes to use it against Chu and dismisses warnings about his own safety 73 76 77 83.
Abilities & Skills
Observation and Information Leverage
- Notices the slender Puppet Thread extending from Chu's fingertip at the end of the Mind-Losing Gu instance 48.
- Witnesses Chu controlling Li Zihao in Room 408 and uses that knowledge to demand help 73.
- Recognizes that Chu is hiding an unusual ability, but does not identify him as the Puppeteer 76.
Influence over Spider Baby
Spider Baby treats Zhang as its mother and initially follows his instructions 77.
- Zhang suppresses his fear and disgust, soothes the creature, and allows it to climb onto him 76.
- He sends it away before Chu and Qi Wu visit, concealing its presence 77.
- His influence is not secure supernatural mastery: he never establishes the blood connection Chu considers necessary to truly command a ghost 83.
- The arrangement fails when Spider Baby turns against him and its real mother intervenes 83.
Relationships
- Chu Qingjiu — Fellow player who becomes his controller and adversary. Zhang's blackmail prompts Chu to save him, make him a puppet, and retaliate against him 73 75 83.
- Qi Wu — Fellow player hostile to Zhang for threatening Chu. Qi intends to extract information from him before killing him, but does not carry out Zhang's eventual murder 77 83.
- Spider Baby — Temporary supernatural ally that mistakes him for its mother. Zhang attempts to exploit its attachment as protection against Chu 76 77.
- Spider Baby's mother — Female ghost brought into C602 by Chu. She remains to find her child and later helps bring about Zhang's death 78 83.
- Wu Zhong and Gu Yanze — Fellow players with whom Zhang stays during Happy Community. Touching an eye on Wu Zhong's body causes Zhang's contamination 72 79.
- Lin Ran and Zhao Yang — Fellow players; Zhang attacks Lin Ran during his panic, but Zhao Yang kicks him away. He later argues with Zhao Yang and scoffs at his warning 73 83.
Story Role / Major Arcs
Mind-Losing Gu
Zhang questions whether Chu and Qi Wu will become liabilities while the pair appear to be arguing. At the instance's conclusion, he stands close enough to see a Puppet Thread extending from Chu's fingertip. Although the others recognize that Chu killed the clan leader, Zhang alone notices this evidence of how his power works 36 48.
Happy Community: Contamination and Blackmail
Zhang joins the eight-player Happy Community instance alongside players Chu has met previously. He is assigned apartment C602 55 74.
During Wu Zhong's transformation, Zhang touches one of the eyes growing on Wu's body as though compelled by an unseen force. His finger initially looks clean, leading him to announce that the eyes are safe to touch. Wu's condition immediately worsens, and the other players withdraw from both men 72.
Eyes subsequently appear on Zhang's hands and spread through scratching. Panicking, he tries to attack Lin Ran before Zhao Yang knocks him down. He then begs Chu for help and threatens to reveal what he witnessed in Room 408 73.
Chu removes the contamination by transferring it into a paper figure, which burns. The procedure injures Chu, but successfully clears Zhang's body of eyes. The others take the apparently unconscious Zhang back to his apartment 73 74.
Puppet Control and Spider Baby
The rescue leaves Zhang under Chu's Soul Puppet Threads. Despite appearing unconscious, he remains fully aware and cannot move or speak freely. Chu uses this control to torment him with an eerie rustling sound and forces him to watch a human-headed spider approach 75 76.
When Spider Baby proves curious rather than immediately hostile, Chu returns Zhang control of his body. Zhang placates it and begins treating it as a potential weapon against Chu. He believes his knowledge of Chu's secret, combined with the creature's loyalty, gives him leverage 76.
Zhang grows openly confrontational during Chu and Qi Wu's visit. On a later visit, Chu secretly brings Spider Baby's mother into the apartment inside a paper figure. Zhang keeps the baby hidden, but its mother senses traces of it and refuses to leave 77 78.
Death
Chu discovers that the community's nightly attacks follow reversed apartment numbers: C206 will target Zhang in C602. He deliberately withholds this warning from Zhang 82.
When the resident of C206 knocks and asks whether he has a child, Zhang cautiously keeps the door shut and denies ever having one. His confidence in Spider Baby proves misplaced: it turns against him, and its real mother intervenes. The resident of C206 ultimately stabs Zhang to death 83.
Chu witnesses the ordeal through his control of Zhang's body and withdraws his Soul Puppet Threads afterward. The following morning, police remove Zhang's corpse and arrest the now-deranged resident of C206 83.