Chapter Summaries

Li Xian and “Mr. Zhang” trapped one human skin in a picture frame, but another emerged and forced them to flee. The second skin ignored Mr. Zhang and pursued Li Xian down the corridor.

• Li Xian and Mr. Zhang waited in bed for the human skin, which burst from the ceiling and attacked Li Xian.
• Li Xian used the picture frame to evade the skin, and Mr. Zhang trapped it inside the frame, where it became a disturbing portrait bearing Zhang Guangding’s features.
• Li Xian spotted another folded human skin hiding in the corner and silently warned Mr. Zhang.
• Li Xian and Mr. Zhang pretended to head to the bathroom, then dashed out of the room and split up in the corridor.
• The human skin switched targets and chased Li Xian instead of Mr. Zhang.

Li Xian and Liang Pei went to the fourth floor to investigate the portraits’ countdown, where they found a bedroom and a message denying that the writer was Du Sha. The chapter ended with the two facing a clue that implicated someone else as Du Sha.

• Li Xian used portraits and a wooden figurine to evade the human skin, then caught it in a picture frame Liang Pei threw to him.
• Liang Pei warned Li Xian that the unnamed man had opened his door from outside and urged him to be careful.
• Liang Pei told Li Xian that his portrait showed four fingers and planned to search the fourth floor; Li Xian agreed after discovering his own portrait also showed four.
• Li Xian and Liang Pei unlocked the gate and entered a bedroom on the fourth floor while the Mistress was occupied in the Living Room.
• Li Xian moved clothing on a table and found the scratched message, “I'm not Du Sha. She is!!!”

Li Xian and Liang Pei uncovered clues about a fire survivor named Du and found a bottle of varnish while searching the fourth-floor room. Back in Li Xian’s room, Song Qingzhang identified a brush he had found behind a painting as coated with the same varnish, and Li Xian began testing his theory on a hallway painting.

• Li Xian found repeated carvings of “I'm Dolly” and, with Liang Pei, pieced together a newspaper report about a 1998 mall fire and its sole survivor, a woman surnamed Du.
• Li Xian found a dusty bottle of clear liquid beneath the bed and hid it behind the iron bars when the Mistress confronted him and Liang Pei.
• Li Xian and Liang Pei returned to Li Xian’s room, where Song Qingzhang showed them a small brush he had found behind a painting.
• Song Qingzhang identified the liquid in the bottle and on the brush as varnish, and Li Xian took a hallway painting down to investigate.

Li Xian and the others coated the portraits with Varnish to prevent their fingers from rising, while Yi Jing remained missing. That night, a strange barefoot presence came searching outside Li Xian’s room, and he found a woman lying in the corridor.

• Li Xian explained that Varnish stopped the portraits from gradually raising their fingers, and he, Liang Pei, and Song Qingzhang coated their paintings.
• At dinner, the group noticed Yi Jing was missing, and Zhang San guessed that the Mistress had killed him and hidden his body.
• Li Xian wondered where the Mistress lived and painted, since the fourth floor was only an abandoned attic.
• Barefoot footsteps roamed the corridor as the human-skin portraits in Li Xian’s drawer began to shake violently.
• Li Xian caught a portrait before it hit the floor, distracting the presence outside and making it rush away from his door.
• Li Xian opened his door and saw a woman lying face down in the corridor, reaching for his doorknob.

Li Xian and the others found Jiang Yan dead after a burned woman entered her room, then realized human-skin portraits reacted to the woman’s presence. They used the portraits to search for her, and they began trembling as Li Xian and Song Qingzhang reached the first floor.

• Li Xian saw a badly burned woman enter Jiang Yan’s room, and Jiang Yan’s mutilated corpse was found in the hallway the next morning.
• Li Xian noticed that the burned woman’s hands had no visible scars, unlike the extensive burns described in the newspaper about Ms. Du.
• Li Xian, Song Qingzhang, and Liang Pei found the Mistress hammering nails into the second-floor exhibition hall wall as she prepared for the exhibition.
• Li Xian realized human-skin portraits shook when the burned woman was nearby and found one beneath Jiang Yan’s bedside table.
• Liang Pei stayed to watch the Mistress while Li Xian and Song Qingzhang searched downstairs with the portraits, which began trembling on the first floor.

Li Xian found the hidden room behind the Mistress's portrait, where a burned woman attacked him from inside a frame. He escaped after driving her back with a brush and covering the portrait, but the Mistress caught him as he tried to leave.

• Li Xian used the human-skin portrait to locate the hidden entrance behind the Mistress's full-length portrait and opened it with the code 19980909.
• Li Xian entered a secret storeroom filled with portraits and uncovered a frame containing a burned woman.
• The woman attacked Li Xian, and he confirmed her exposed hand had no burns as she muttered that she was not like the person in the painting.
• Li Xian struck the woman's hand with a brush, covered the frame with a black cloth, and took a booklet from the floor.
• Li Xian left the hidden room, but the Mistress stopped him at the staircase.

Li Xian, Liang Pei, and Song Qingzhang examined the Mistress’s photo album and uncovered the history of the twin sisters Du Sha and Dolly, including a fire on their eighteenth birthday. The last photograph and its panicked note left them uncertain about what had really happened to the sisters.

• Song Qingzhang distracted the Mistress so Li Xian could hurry upstairs with him and Liang Pei.
• Li Xian opened the book he had taken from the Mistress’s room and discovered it was a photo album showing Du Sha and Dolly growing up as inseparable twins.
• The album showed that both sisters had individual portraits made for their eighteenth birthday on September 9, 1998, the same date a newspaper reported that Ms. Du had suffered burns in a fire.
• Liang Pei proposed that Dolly escaped the fire while Du Sha was burned, but Li Xian continued studying the photographs without agreeing or disagreeing.
• The photographs showed Dolly wishing for Du Sha’s recovery and caring for her, while their mother later wrote that Du Sha had begun asking for cake and had stopped hurting people and smashing things.
• Li Xian found a blurry photograph of a blue-clad figure apparently painting and a panicked note from their mother saying that something felt wrong.

Li Xian stopped the Mistress from searching his room and hid the photos again. That evening, he gave Mr. Zhang Varnish to protect his portrait, then left after Mr. Zhang claimed he had planned to steal it from Li Xian’s room.

• The Mistress called Li Xian, Liang Pei, and Song Qingzhang to lunch, then tried to search Li Xian’s room while they were downstairs.
• Li Xian realized the Mistress had not followed them and rushed back upstairs, catching her beside his bed before she could lift the blanket.
• The Mistress left when Li Xian challenged her, and he gathered the scattered photos and hid the album under his pillow.
• After an afternoon of searching yielded no clues, Li Xian visited Mr. Zhang and saw that his portrait showed four fingers and had no Varnish.
• Li Xian gave Mr. Zhang a bottle of Varnish and told him to return it the next morning before leaving in frustration.

At Miss Dolly’s Portrait Gallery, the Mistress told the guests the story of twins Du Sha and Dolly as she unveiled five paintings. The final portrait revealed Du Sha’s severely burned face, and the Mistress’s tale stopped at the moment she woke in the hospital.

• The Mistress opened the exhibition hall, where hundreds of portraits watched Li Xian, Liang Pei, Song Qingzhang, and Mr. Zhang enter.
• The four guests sat while the Mistress welcomed them to the exhibition and announced that it was her twenty-second birthday.
• The Mistress unveiled the first three paintings and explained that twins Du Sha and Dolly had grown up close in a wealthy family.
• The Mistress revealed that the sisters received individual portraits for their eighteenth birthday and that Du Sha was caught in a terrible fire while going to the mall.
• The Mistress uncovered the final painting, showing Du Sha’s burn-scarred face.

Li Xian exposed the Mistress as the real Du Sha, revealing that she had been burned and had taken her sister Dolly’s place in the portrait. Du Sha attacked the portraits and chased Li Xian, who wondered why the fifth-day exhibition objective remained incomplete.

• The portraits’ gossip and the Mistress’s laughter drove Du Sha into anguish and caused everyone’s Mental Value to fall.
• Li Xian recognized Du Sha’s broken words and declared that the Mistress was the real Du Sha, not the burned woman in the painting.
• Li Xian used photographs and the Mistress’s lack of visible skin to support his claim that she had survived the fire and adopted her sister’s tastes.
• The Mistress attacked Li Xian, who struck her with a vase and exposed burn scars beneath her clothes.
• Du Sha stabbed several portraits with a utility knife, then chased Li Xian as he wondered why the exhibition objective had not been completed.

Li Xian lured Du Sha into a room and used a portrait, a hidden knife, and the curtains to set a trap that freed Dolly. Although the viewers thought the instance was nearly cleared, Lin Shiming’s continued silence suggested it was not over.

• Li Xian went upstairs, hid in a room, and used a portrait as a hammer to set up a trap.
• Du Sha searched the room and found Li Xian holding a portrait, but he threw it away to distract her and escape.
• Du Sha caught Li Xian, pinned his hand beneath her heel, and demanded to know where Dolly was.
• Dolly lunged at Du Sha and dragged her down, giving Li Xian a chance to get up.
• Du Sha noticed the knife tied to the door handle and the portrait it had pierced, which had let Dolly tear through the canvas and escape.
• Guilds donated points to Li Xian, while Lin Shiming’s lack of action suggested the instance was still ongoing.

Li Xian tried to turn Dolly against Du Sha by pointing out that Dolly had never attacked her face. Du Sha recounted her suffering and the sisters’ history, then suddenly struck Dolly with an empty picture frame.

• Du Sha urged Dolly to kill Li Xian and take his skin, claiming she had let Dolly out of the painting for that purpose.
• Li Xian told Dolly that she and Du Sha were different because Dolly had never tried to peel off her sister’s face.
• Du Sha argued that Dolly had not suffered as much as she had and recounted being shunned and locked in the attic by her family.
• Du Sha recalled asking Dolly for birthday cake and described the fork as sharp.
• Du Sha retrieved an empty picture frame and brought it down on the silent Dolly.

Li Xian tried to save Dolly from Du Sha’s portrait, but Dolly pulled Du Sha into the painting with her. After Mr. Zhang healed Li Xian’s hand, the portraits in the corridor went out of control, and Li Xian rushed downstairs to find Song Qingzhang and Liang Pei holding a shaking exhibition hall door.

• Li Xian grabbed Dolly and tried to pull her free as the frame drew her inside, while Du Sha injured his hand to make him let go.
• Dolly seized Du Sha’s wrist and dragged her into the painting, and Li Xian knocked away Du Sha’s knife with another portrait.
• Du Sha and Dolly became trapped side by side in the canvas, and Mr. Zhang took the portrait and healed Li Xian’s hand with a skill.
• The corridor portraits shook, fell, and crawled out of their frames toward Li Xian as the portrait with four raised fingers was attacked by a tentacle.
• Li Xian ran downstairs and found Song Qingzhang and Liang Pei bracing the exhibition hall doors against something trying to break through.

Li Xian found a way to burn the rampaging portraits and exposed Ji Xie’s identity by testing whether he had opened a bottle of Varnish. The chapter ended with Ji Xie pinning Li Xian against a wall and forcing something into his mouth, leaving Li Xian shocked and demanding an explanation.

• Li Xian ordered Song Qingzhang to release the portraits and had Liang Pei and Ji Xie lure the pursuing horde away while he searched the boxes under a bed with Song Qingzhang.
• Li Xian found a small box containing something that produced a flame, and he used it to set the portraits on fire without igniting anything else.
• Li Xian told Ji Xie that his manner of speaking, the portraits’ failure to chase him, and the untouched Varnish bottle had revealed his identity.
• Ji Xie pinned Li Xian against the wall and forced something wet and slippery into his mouth.
• Li Xian bit down, spat it out, and demanded to know what Ji Xie was doing.

Li Xian, Ji Xie, Song Qingzhang, and Liang Pei completed the art exhibition task and cleared Miss Dolly's Portrait Gallery with its true ending. The instance closed after Li Xian and his companions received their rewards, while Li Xian gained additional special rewards to claim after logging out.

• Ji Xie renewed his Marriage Bond with Li Xian, upgrading it to Pair for Life.
• Song Qingzhang restored Dolly's burned face, then involuntarily painted Du Sha's exposed skin to match Dolly's; the two figures in the portrait closed their eyes.
• Li Xian hung the restored portrait in the exhibition hall, completing the clearance task.
• The system awarded Li Xian, Song Qingzhang, and Liang Pei the true ending and calculated their instance rewards.
• The system granted Li Xian extra rewards for his special statuses and record-breaking viewer tips, then permanently closed the instance.

After earning a record number of tips for clearing Miss Dolly's Portrait Gallery, Li Xian received an SSS-grade card that could send him straight to an Advanced Zone Instance. A strange red pop-up urged him to use it, and Li Xian chose to advance alone, leaving Song Qingzhang behind for now.

• The system announced that Miss Dolly's Portrait Gallery had closed and that Li Xian had received a record 15,399 tip points, drawing attention from players in the Novice Zone lobby.
• Li Xian escaped the crowd, claimed an SSS-grade SVIP Promotion Card, and learned it could send him directly into an Advanced Zone Instance for five times the rewards.
• Li Xian hesitated over using the card because he would miss learning about the Advanced Zone before entering an Instance.
• A crimson pop-up appeared on Li Xian's Light Screen and urged him to use the card; when Li Xian asked who was speaking, it replied that he did not need to know.
• Li Xian told Song Qingzhang he could not enter their next Instance together because the card let him go straight to the Advanced Zone, and Song Qingzhang vowed to catch up.

Li Xian inspected the rewards from his previous Instance, then entered the S-rank No. 48 Asylum as patient 303A. He found conflicting attendance records and met another player in the corridor.

• Song Qingzhang asked Li Xian about the strange person missing from the previous Instance’s completion rewards, but Li Xian said he did not know who the man was.
• Li Xian examined an A-quality Sharp Utility Knife and an S-quality, single-use E-flat Major Nocturne that could protect someone from one instance of fatal damage.
• After eating and sleeping, Li Xian entered the No. 48 Asylum Instance, where the objective was to find the only sane character and take them out of the asylum.
• Li Xian discovered that he was patient 303A, diagnosed with homosexuality, and read the asylum’s schedule and attendance records.
• Li Xian noticed that the records did not match the apparent time and date, then stepped into the corridor and encountered another person.

Li Xian realized the players had arrived at the hospital cafeteria just before the morning deadline and saw a late patient punished with a doubled dose. During attendance, Zhuang Man gave the wrong room number and was punished too, while Li Xian noticed that patients received the same two pills.

• Li Xian found the wards empty, realized it was almost nine in the morning, and hurried everyone toward the cafeteria.
• The Head Nurse punished Li Jiantao for arriving one second late by ordering the orderlies to make him take a double dose, costing him thirty Mental Value points.
• The Head Nurse began attendance, and Zhuang Man answered to the wrong number, so the orderlies dragged her away for a double dose.
• The silent player identified as 307B answered attendance by raising his hand, and the Head Nurse accepted it.
• The patients lined up to take two pills each, which Li Xian recognized as the same pills given to the punished players.

Li Xian avoided swallowing his two pills during a disturbance, then met Jiang Qiuyue and the silent man in Ward 307B. The man introduced himself as Cheng Xin, vice guild leader of the White Night Guild.

• Doctor Ding ordered Li Xian to take two pills and inspected his mouth after he drank water.
• A manic patient attacked Doctor Ding, and orderlies subdued and injected him, creating a distraction that let Li Xian spit out his pills unnoticed.
• Li Xian noticed that Jiang Qiuyue and the silent man appeared unaffected by the loss of Mental Value, unlike players forced to take four pills.
• Jiang Qiuyue introduced herself and suggested they talk outside after breakfast, then Li Xian was led to Ward 307B.
• The man showed Li Xian and Jiang Qiuyue his chart, which listed aphasia and dementia, and they shared their assigned conditions.
• The man introduced himself to Li Xian as Cheng Xin, vice guild leader of the White Night Guild.

Li Xian agreed to work with Cheng Xin and the White Night Guild while they searched the asylum for someone. After a piercing tone sent the patients into a fearful silence, a patient attacked, and Li Xian drew the Head Nurse and an unfamiliar doctor’s attention.

• Cheng Xin recognized Li Xian from his livestream fame and invited him to work with the White Night Guild; Li Xian agreed.
• Li Xian, Cheng Xin, and Jiang Qiuyue left the ward to search the building and heard a piercing tone that silenced the patients.
• When Jiang Qiuyue spoke, a patient charged after her, and Li Xian stopped Cheng Xin from striking him as the Head Nurse approached.
• The Head Nurse questioned Li Xian and Cheng Xin about the patient who had fallen down the stairs, while an unfamiliar doctor watched Li Xian.
• The patient attacked Li Xian but stopped short of hitting him, so Li Xian pretended to be hurt and pulled them both down the stairs.
• The doctor caught Li Xian before he hit the floor, while the patient landed at the Head Nurse’s feet and passed out again.