Chapter Summaries

Seven strangers awoke on a driverless bus surrounded by zombies and learned they were players in a game set in an Uninhabited Village. After the game announced there were seven players, the group realized they could account for only six people.

• A fierce-looking man, a young man in a hoodie, a girl with glasses, a middle-aged man, and a couple woke on a bus with no driver, brakes, or working steering wheel.
• A mechanical voice welcomed them to a game and said the bus would reach its destination in half an hour.
• The girl with glasses recognized the ash-like haze outside, and the middle-aged man and fierce-looking man spotted zombies chasing the bus.
• The girl with glasses suggested they were trapped in a deadly game, and the group heard that its location was the Uninhabited Village.
• The game announced that seven players were aboard, but the six visible passengers could not identify the seventh.

Ji Xun, a former escape-game boss fired by his system, joined a group of players on a bus to the Uninhabited Village and learned their in-game identities. The players got off at the eerie stop and discovered the bus they had ridden was packed with resentful-looking passengers.

• The players found Ji Xun sitting silently in the bus’s rear seats, and Lu Jiancheng pulled down his hood.
• Ji Xun explained that he had just lost his job and the house he had bought, while Tang Cha sympathized with his own interrupted plans.
• Tang Cha, Lu Jiancheng, Fang Rui, Xin Xin, Zhou Yang, and Zhao Fu shared the identities assigned to them by the game, and Ji Xun claimed to be an ordinary wage earner.
• Ji Xun felt an item beneath his coat as the system announced that the bus had reached the Uninhabited Village stop.
• Lu Jiancheng led the group off the bus, and Xin Xin screamed when she saw its bloodstained exterior and the hostile passengers staring from inside.

Ji Xun and the other players entered the Uninhabited Village, where the villagers recognized Ji Xun and welcomed them into his family’s old house. As night fell, the group settled in together, unaware of the blood smell Tang Cha noticed beside Ji Xun before falling asleep.

• Lu Jiancheng led the group away from the bus, and the game announced the Uninhabited Village instance and its quest to find at least four villagers.
• Uncle Chen recognized Ji Xun as a boy from the village and led the group to the Ji family’s house.
• Tang Cha found an old photograph of Ji Xun as a child beneath a black pine tree, and Ji Xun suspected the game’s boss had provided it.
• Ji Xun persuaded Zhao Fu not to split the group up, noting that the quest’s villager count had not changed despite their encounters.
• Lu Jiancheng and Zhao Fu agreed to keep watch while the others rested, and Tang Cha fell asleep after sensing a strong smell of blood beside Ji Xun.

Tang Cha and the others discovered that the villagers had become human-headed snakes and fled through the village. They took refuge in a strange, well-furnished house, where a disturbing sound came from inside the room after Ji Xun warned Tang Cha away from the heated brick bed.

• Tang Cha and his companions woke at midnight to find spirit money outside and hear something slithering in the neighboring room.
• Lu Jiancheng led the group out as human-headed snakes broke into their courtyard, including monsters with the faces of villagers such as Uncle Chen.
• The group ran through the village and, at Tang Cha's suggestion, took shelter in an unusually well-furnished house.
• Fang Rui and Xin Xin noticed clues that the house had once belonged to a family with a small child.
• Ji Xun warned Tang Cha to stay away from the heated brick bed, and a deeply unsettling sound came from inside the room.

Ji Xun and the others discovered evidence of a brutal murder in the house, including an infant’s severed leg hidden in a pot, and began searching for the villagers required by the quest. Their search beneath the heated bed revealed a curled-up skeleton, leaving them with a new and disturbing clue.

• Xin Xin heard a shrill scraping noise inside the house, and Lu Jiancheng reported that monsters surrounded them but would not approach.
• Ji Xun searched the house and found blood trails, blood-spattered rooms, and farming tools marked with reddish-brown stains.
• Ji Xun found a rotted infant’s leg in a kitchen pot, and the others reacted with grief and horror.
• Fang Rui organized the group’s questions and clues while Ji Xun and the men dug beneath the heated bed.
• Lu Jiancheng found a skeleton curled up inside the opening beneath the heated bed.

Ji Xun and the others found a flesh-stripped skeleton and a warning inside the house, then spent the night sheltering from the snakes. After the villagers returned at dawn, Ji Xun discovered the house had been restored, revealing a photograph of a couple and their infant.

• Ji Xun identified the skeleton as having been skinned, bled, and stripped of flesh, while the group read the warning, “Don't trust them.”
• Ji Xun persuaded the exhausted group to rest inside the house, then contacted Administrator No. 009 and negotiated a chance to enter the human world after clearing the game.
• At dawn, the snakes turned back into villagers, and Uncle Chen warned Ji Xun to leave the supposedly cursed house.
• Ji Xun found the house restored: the skeleton, the baby's leg, and the blood were gone, and a photograph showed a couple with their infant son.

Ji Xun discovered a strange side quest involving Grandpa Jin and a river said to eat people, while the group found signs that the villagers barely used their farming tools or harvested their crops. The players suspected the villagers only pretended to farm to hide their true nature from outsiders.

• Ji Xun encountered a disheveled old man by the river, who warned him that the river ate people and the villagers were monsters wearing human skin.
• A hidden watcher slipped a marble into Ji Xun's pocket, and a quest appeared asking the players to resolve Grandpa Jin's troubles with marbles and nightly wet patches.
• Tang Cha warned Ji Xun to stay away from the river, then brought him to rejoin the other players for lunch.
• Zhao Fu pointed out that the villagers' farming tools were badly worn despite the villagers' apparent need to farm, and Lu Jiancheng noted that crops were overripe and damaged but unharvested.
• Fang Rui suggested the villagers farm to keep outsiders from suspecting anything, and Ji Xun reminded the group that they themselves were outsiders.

Fang Rui and Tang Cha uncovered the village’s history of children dying and returning, while Ji Xun suspected outsiders had attacked the family who vanished more than forty years ago. The group resisted the game’s forced sleep and reached the river at night, where they found its water black as ink.

• Tang Cha told the group that seven elderly villagers lived alone and recognized photos of their supposedly dead children as the villagers who had turned into snakes.
• Tang Cha learned that a couple had moved back to the village more than forty years ago, then vanished on the same day the children they had taught died and returned home.
• Tang Cha asked Grandpa Jin about his side quest and learned that A-Fei had disappeared without returning, leaving Grandpa Jin convinced that snakes and ghosts haunted the village.
• Ji Xun suggested that unknown attackers had killed the couple and children, then assumed the children’s identities, and warned that the villagers now looked at the group like prey.
• At night, Ji Xun woke Tang Cha, Fang Rui, Lu Jiancheng, and Zhao Fu from the game’s forced sleep, and they set off for the river with tools to defend themselves.
• The group reached the river without alerting the snakes and discovered that its water was black as ink.

Ji Xun dove into the river to find the missing villager and discovered a suffering child’s corpse who pleaded for help. As monsters attacked the others on the bank, Ji Xun promised the child he would handle what had happened to him.

• Zhao Fu and Lu Jiancheng offered to dive into the river, but Ji Xun insisted and jumped in after revealing his bloodstained clothes had frightened Tang Cha.
• Ji Xun swam through darkness and attacking fish skeletons until he found a figure sitting among bones on the riverbed.
• While Ji Xun was underwater, Xin Xin warned the group of an approaching scorpion, and Lu Jiancheng, Zhao Fu, Fang Rui, and Tang Cha fought off human-headed scorpions as snakes drew near.
• Ji Xun discovered the figure was a child whose mental cries caused him pain, then soothed him by making physical contact.
• The child showed Ji Xun images of his memories, and Ji Xun held him and promised to help; the main quest count remained at three of four villagers found.

Ji Xun rescued the players from the monsters, but Zhao Fu died after being stung by a scorpion. The survivors returned to the safe house grieving and afraid that they would be next.

• The monsters attacked the players, and Ji Xun rushed to help after hearing Tang Cha scream.
• Ji Xun killed many of the monsters and drove the rest away before leading the exhausted players back to the cottage.
• Ji Xun realized Zhao Fu was dying from a scorpion sting, and Zhao Fu told Fang Rui about his estranged daughter and asked the group to call the police.
• Ji Xun ended Zhao Fu's suffering and gave him a peaceful final dream.
• Fang Rui and Tang Cha broke down in grief as the survivors confronted the danger of dying in the game.

After Zhao Fu’s death, Ji Xun gave the shaken players time to recover, and they shared how they had died. Ji Xun then revealed that the drowned child at the bottom of the river was A-Fei, Grandpa Jin’s missing son, who seemed to return home each night.

• Ji Xun stood guard while the players regained their composure, and Lu Jiancheng thanked him for protecting Zhao Fu.
• Lu Jiancheng told Ji Xun that he had died after being struck by a car while fleeing after beating a man who abused his sister.
• Tang Cha recognized Lu Jiancheng’s accident as the same drunk-driving incident that had killed him, then the players shared the regrets they had before dying.
• Tang Cha’s joke about Ji Xun being fired eased the group’s grief, and Ji Xun told them he had found the third villager underwater.
• Ji Xun identified the drowned child as A-Fei, Grandpa Jin’s missing son, who appeared to crawl home from the river at night.

Ji Xun explained how A-Fei and Chen Xin were killed by the outsiders, and how A-Fei’s fears made the villagers become snakes and scorpions at night. With one day left in the game, the players caught a Man-Snake so they could question it about the missing villager.

• Ji Xun recounted how A-Fei discovered the wound on Chen Xin’s back before someone drowned them both in the river.
• Fang Rui suggested something had torn open Chen Xin’s back and entered his body, and Ji Xun agreed it fit the children’s replaced identities.
• Ji Xun explained that A-Fei’s fear and resentment had turned the outsiders into the snakes and scorpions the villagers became at night.
• When Tang Cha asked how they could find the fourth villager, Ji Xun proposed catching a monster and asking it.
• Tang Cha acted as bait for a Man-Snake, which chased him toward Ji Xun before Lu Jiancheng dropped a bucket over its head and knocked it unconscious with a hammer.

Ji Xun and the others questioned the captured Man-Snake about the villagers and learned that monsters had taken over some of their bodies while others were eaten or carried away. Teacher Meng's husband then killed the Man-Snake and pinned a small black snake that emerged from its body, leaving Ji Xun worried.

• Tang Cha poked the unconscious Man-Snake until it woke and lunged at him, but Ji Xun pulled him away and Lu Jiancheng knocked it out again.
• Lu Jiancheng and the others tied up the Man-Snake and brought it into the house, where Ji Xun forced it to answer questions by exposing the skeleton in the bedroom.
• The Man-Snake admitted that the monsters had eaten some villagers, taken over others' bodies, and that traitors had carried the remaining villagers away.
• A scraping sound came from the bedroom, and the Man-Snake begged to be released before Ji Xun let Tang Cha open the door.
• Teacher Meng's husband advanced on the Man-Snake and repeatedly stabbed its throat until its head fell off, revealing a small black snake.
• Teacher Meng's husband pinned the black snake to the floor until it stopped moving, and Ji Xun frowned and said it was bad.

The players found the last villager dead, completing their quest, then fought their way toward the bus as the monsters surrounded them. A-Fei and the other villagers rescued them and stayed behind to defeat the monsters, while the players boarded the bus for the Headquarters Base.

• Grandpa Jin told the players how he discovered the monsters and confirmed that the villagers taken away by Grandpa Chen were buried in a clearing.
• Grandpa Jin led the players to the graves, where they found the final villager dead and completed the main quest to find four villagers.
• As monsters surrounded the players on their way to the bus, A-Fei used firecrackers to break their encirclement.
• White Bone, the baby, the woman, and the other dead villagers appeared and held off the monsters while A-Fei urged the players to leave.
• The players reached the bus, watched its passengers leave, and boarded as it announced the Headquarters Base as its next stop.

Ji Xun and the other players arrived at Headquarters Base and separated into their assigned districts, where Ji Xun and Tang Cha registered as new players. After discovering he had received no points for the Uninhabited Village, Ji Xun learned that his team had unlocked the instance’s true ending, which the system approved despite NPC complaints.

• The players received district assignments, and Zhou Yang warned them not to trust other players too easily before he and Xin Xin entered E District.
• Fang Rui and Lu Jiancheng left the bus, then Ji Xun and Tang Cha registered at C District’s gate and received identification tags.
• Ji Xun told Tang Cha that Zhou Yang and Xin Xin were veteran players who had likely been helping the newcomers clear the instance.
• Tang Cha left to find his assigned house and asked Ji Xun to team up with him in the next instance.
• Ji Xun found that his reward for the Uninhabited Village was zero and confronted No. 009 about the withheld points.
• No. 009 explained that Ji Xun’s team had unlocked the true ending and sealed the village, and that the main system approved of his method despite complaints from NPCs.

Ji Xun browsed the Headquarters Base rankings and shop before Yuan Ci and Su Rang prepared to enter a school instance, while guilds sought the newcomers who had cleared Uninhabited Village. Ji Xun was abruptly pulled into Jianshe Road Experimental Middle School, where he mistook Yuan Ci’s disguise for a new teacher and claimed to be the Grade 10 director.

• Ji Xun learned that his three hundred-point reward gave him ten days to enter another instance, browsed the shop and rankings, and saw Yuan Ci at the top.
• Su Rang, Yuan Ci, and Qin Mi discussed the newcomers who cleared Uninhabited Village, and Yuan Ci decided that he and Su Rang would enter the next instance together.
• Tang Cha visited Ji Xun with food, told him guilds were asking about him, and invited him to join a run in ten days.
• Ji Xun was transported away from Tang Cha and found himself in a school corridor marked Grade 10, Class 12.
• Yuan Ci approached Ji Xun disguised as a teacher, but Ji Xun challenged him by claiming to be the Grade 10 director as the system announced the Jianshe Road Experimental Middle School instance.

Ji Xun learned that Yuan Ci was a veteran player who could sense other players, while Yuan Ci became intrigued by Ji Xun. The players gathered to plan for the instance and discovered a huge mirror bearing the words “Straighten your attire.”

• Yuan Ci introduced himself to Ji Xun and revealed that veteran players could sense other players, then left Ji Xun wondering about his own status.
• Ji Xun decided to stop lying low and headed for the faculty office.
• Wei Lin introduced himself as captain of the Deep Abyss Seventh Squad and urged the players to cooperate in clearing the instance.
• Hao Wei revealed that Yuan Ci and Su Rang were also in the instance, alarming the other players because Yuan Ci could raise an instance’s rank.
• Si Qi noticed a huge mirror in the lobby with three blood-red characters reading “Straighten your attire.”

Ji Xun and the other players investigated Experimental Middle School, where students feared the lobby mirror and avoided sharing ghost stories. After nightfall, a brutal dorm supervisor hunted students who were awake, and Ji Xun caught sight of the burned man outside Room 204.

• Hao Wei saw her reflection smile eerily in the lobby mirror, and the players learned the mirror was linked to campus ghost stories.
• Ji Xun returned to class, where Yuan Ci teased him until Ji Xun gave his name.
• The players shared ordinary school ghost stories at lunch, then returned to their dorms before the ten o'clock room inspection.
• A dorm supervisor broke into Room 203 and killed or attacked someone inside after finding a student awake.
• The supervisor stopped outside Room 204, and Ji Xun saw his burned face through the ventilation window before the man said, "Good child, I've caught you."

Ji Xun, Yuan Ci, and the others escaped the dormitory inspection and joined forces to search the classroom building. Their search ended with the discovery of player Wang Kaile’s severed head rolling down the stairs.

• Ji Xun, Yuan Ci, and Su Rang evaded the administrator by staying silent, then left the dormitory while he inspected the upper floors.
• Yuan Ci gathered Si Qi, Hao Wei, Wei Lin, and other players to search the classroom building, with Dawn and Abyss taking separate wings.
• The group heard something rolling down the stairwell, and Ji Xun pulled Hao Wei and Si Qi back while Yuan Ci kicked the object away.
• Ji Xun identified the object as Wang Kaile’s severed head, its mouth cut wide open in a silent grin.

Ji Xun and Yuan Ci investigated the bloody staircase, where a looping flight trapped them on a landing and a face in the floor attacked with razor-sharp strings. They destroyed the strings and stabbed the face, causing the barrier to disappear as Su Rang called to them from below.

• Yuan Ci and Ji Xun followed a trail of blood to the staircase and began counting its steps together.
• After they counted twelve steps, the upper flight vanished and Yuan Ci discovered that a stone thrown downstairs was trapped in a loop.
• Ji Xun spotted a human-shaped face in the marble landing just before cold glints attacked them.
• Yuan Ci held Ji Xun back from the cutting strings while Ji Xun identified them as instrument strings and drew his saber.
• Ji Xun and Yuan Ci cut through the strings, and Ji Xun stabbed the face, making the wall disappear as Su Rang called to them.