Su Bai

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Su Bai (苏白)
Alias(es)	“Monster,” “Freak,” “Enchantress,” “Witch,” “Demoness,” and “Siren” 5 10 18; “Boss Bai” 195
Species/Race	Human; borrowing Vengeful Ghost Puzzle powers can temporarily make him indistinguishable from a vengeful ghost. He continues to identify himself as human despite others questioning his nature 10 43 615
Gender	Male 7
Age	Eighteen after returning to the past; twenty-nine in Xiao Wu’s records of his previous life 10
Affiliation	Mist Shop; temporarily joins player teams led by Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie, then Lan Xingchen. Later cooperates with Feng Ling and the Nameless Society, as well as Qin Ge and his colleagues 7 29 39 242 448 650
Occupation/Role	Nightmare World player; Mist Shop owner; high school student at the point of his return, later an incoming Qingliu University freshman 1 7 586
Status	Alive; undertaking prewar preparations and transforming the Nameless Society’s base, the Mist Shop, and Wu Heng’s Fog Mountain into Puzzle Pieces 647 650
First Appearance	Chapter 1, “Reborn at Max Level?” 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Previous life — Enhanced Puzzle Ability develops into Vengeful Ghost Puzzle	11 21	His Trait develops under the Red Moon’s influence. During his first Route 444 game, A Xi saves him, and her cries in Ghost Village’s ritual fire awaken the ability that makes her his first puzzle piece.
Previous life — expanded puzzle and accumulated Red Moon power	1 11	Over ten years, he acquires numerous vengeful ghost pieces and becomes renowned for his strength and determination to survive.
Return to the past — reduced physical strength	1 5	Returns to his frail high school body without his former power reserves, although a faint current of Red Moon power remains.
Mist Shop ownership and Palm Brand	7 8 9	Receives the shop as a betrothal gift. Its brand grants ghost capture, supernatural-item creation, and access to the shop through handled doors. Stocking merchandise increases his strength.
Accelerated Red Moon absorption	12	Finds that he absorbs Red Moon power faster than he did at his previous-life peak, even without the Mist Shop’s enhancement.
New puzzle piece — Nurse Cry	22	Takes in the Nurse after she asks him to hide her. Her powers can affect supernatural entities and help injured or ill humans.
First supernatural merchandise created	24	Seals the White Qipao Paper Figure into white high heels. Creating the item restores his exhausted power and leaves him more replenished than before.
Further merchandise conversion and reserve growth	56 59	Converts the Shadow Ghost and Unlucky Coffin-Sleeping Ghost into merchandise, then makes Ghost Auntie into an item not for sale. The latter restores his combat expenditure and noticeably increases the white sand representing his maximum power capacity.
Happiness Residential Complex gains — expanded capacity and physical recovery	70	The game supplies eight products. Shop power begins exceeding his immediate capacity, and the overflow gradually strengthens his formerly frail body.
Lorimas’s life force becomes compatible	120	After losing consciousness from exhaustion, wakes refreshed and discovers that Lorimas’s formerly chaotic life force has become docile and harmonious with his remaining power, approaching complete fusion.
Fog City meditation — improved power control	186	Three months of meditation improve control and reduce expenditure, although the inability to absorb Red Moon power or obtain new merchandise during that period leaves his reserves finite.
Blood-colored beads upgraded for battlefield collection	190	Xiao Wu modifies the beads so that, with the Palm Brand, they collect stray energy and the power left by nearby fallen Ghost Creatures. Xiao Wu also replenishes Su Bai’s depleted power.
Fog City Lord’s power — restored previous-life peak and expanded internal capacity	220 267 590	The shop channels the Lord’s converted power into him to forcibly enlarge his internal power pool. The process causes severe side effects, but brings him to his previous-life peak and enables sustained external activity by his puzzle pieces.
Mirror World — disruptive energy cleared	267	Allows Little Fire to consume all his remaining power, removing the chaotic foreign energy responsible for his side effects. His reserves are emptied, but the expansion of his capacity is retained.
Access to formerly inaccessible powerful puzzle pieces	420	His increased power and the shop’s support let him barely open the “doors” of pieces he could not properly access in his previous life, including bringing them into the Real World.
Mutant treatment — tainted energy assimilated	448 455 457	Develops a treatment process that suppresses bodily activity, injects his power, and removes tainted energy. After a difficult treatment, the extracted energy is fully assimilated into his own power overnight.
Strength surpasses his former self	532	His physique, available power, and understanding of that power are all described as far beyond those of his previous life, although sufficiently powerful foreign energy can still overwhelm or conflict with him.
Mother Tree of Life battle — large-scale puzzle deployment	576 578	Summons multiple puzzle pieces to attack the tree fused with the hospital. His principal contribution becomes supplying the power that sustains their external combat.
Weird Tree power — renewed adjustment and insight	586 590 596	Acquires a much larger influx of power and undergoes another physically debilitating adjustment. Meditation during protective sleep produces insight into crossing the boundary between himself and his puzzle pieces.
New personal weapon — staff and blood-red scythe	614 615	During combat, materializes the conceptual puzzle doorway’s handle as a black-and-red staff that extends into a scythe. Subsequently incorporates Little Fire’s blue flames into its blade.
Territorial Puzzle Piece transformation	647 650	Transforms the Nameless Society’s base into a Puzzle Piece, then completes the combined transformation of the Mist Shop and the Fog Mountain hidden within it, using stored shop power and contributions from his existing pieces.

Background / History

Su Bai grew up with his older brother, Su Xuan, and their mother. Their father died of illness before Su Bai could remember him, leaving their mother to raise both sons alone. Su Xuan was once cheerful and hardworking but became a compulsive gambler and drinker. After their mother was hospitalized following a car accident, he borrowed money in the name of her treatment, gambled it away, and disappeared 1.

Su Bai abandoned his university ambitions and sought work to pay for treatment. Creditors eventually took the family home, and his mother died without regaining consciousness. He spent a year searching for Su Xuan before entering the Nightmare World aboard Route 444 on November 11, the first anniversary of her death 1 11.

In that first game, Su Bai’s circumstances resonated with the Ghost Bride, A Xi, who had also been betrayed by a gambling brother. She spared him and entrusted him with the obsession to “keep living.” He subsequently spent ten years in the Nightmare World, remaining there rather than returning to a reality in which he had nothing left to protect 11 12 22.

Near the end of that period, Su Bai signed a supernatural Marriage Contract to escape a lethal encounter. His memories immediately before his return are obscured, and the cause of that return remains unclear. He awakens on October 8, eleven years earlier, realizes his mother is still alive, and heads for her hospital 1 5.

His mother, later identified as Lin Wan, had run a clothing shop on Commercial Street in Honghuai City. Before the family’s collapse, Su Bai was a lively, academically successful boy admired by neighbors and schoolmates. His attempts to find work after leaving school were hindered by his being a few months short of eighteen 1 67.

His recollections of the family’s ruin become more complicated as he investigates Su Xuan. He remembers that Su Xuan took the family’s savings and that Lin Wan was struck by a car while trying to stop him. Later encounters reveal a Strange Creature’s connection to Su Xuan’s identity and body, making the apparent betrayal more complex than Su Bai initially understood 173 327 351.

In the new timeline, Su Bai’s growing strength and the Mist Shop’s income allow him to resume pursuing the future he previously abandoned. He completes his entrance exams and becomes an incoming freshman at Qingliu University, while continuing to seek a way to repair Lin Wan’s damaged soul 67 141 277 367 586.

A later exploration of forgotten memories shows his childhood self touching an anomalous mirror and entering a gloomy stone-walled space beyond it. The experience establishes that an unusual encounter occurred during his childhood, without by itself resolving the cause of his rebirth 635.

Appearance

Su Bai is repeatedly described as handsome, but his eighteen-year-old body is extremely thin and initially so weak that raising a hand is difficult 1 2.

• Ordinary clothing: Wears his old high school uniform when he returns to the past 1.
• Palm Brand: A slightly darker mark on his left palm resembling a Möbius strip, with interwoven bands bearing unfamiliar characters 9.
• Left wrist: Carries a bracelet of twelve blood-red beads used as temporary ghost vessels 11.
• Newcomer disguise: Uses darkened skin, black-framed glasses, obscuring bangs, a slightly hoarse voice, and a bashful manner 29 43.
• A Xi resonance: Takes on a crimson wedding gown and a bridal veil hung with silver bells. His body remains his own, but becomes icy, and A Xi’s chest wound appears on him 20.
• Black Umbrella resonance: Develops a bloody strangulation mark and an empty left eye socket, usually concealed with clothing, an eye patch, glasses, or bangs 30 34.
• Lorimas Grand Hotel disguise: Appears as attendant Number Eight, an exquisitely beautiful, motionless figure whom other players mistake for a female Doll. Su Bai attributes the conspicuous appearance to Black Umbrella’s lack of restraint 79.
• Little Fire manifestation: Blue flame can appear in his right eye; Little Fire also sheds a tear through that eye after a transformed test subject is released from her suffering 84 108.
• Later physical development: Overflowing power restores and strengthens his body and five senses. He remains slender rather than muscular, despite gaining enough physical strength to knock down a Ghost Creature with one punch 220.
• Increasingly striking features: By the Fog City period, his appearance shifts from a sickly teenage boy toward a refined young man. Zhang Yibu describes his beauty as transcending gender and exceeding that of carefully crafted dolls; weakness and a hoarse voice occasionally contribute to mistaken assumptions about his gender 220.
• Later everyday presentation: Sometimes ties his hair back with a key hair tie, leaving a few strands loose. His pale wrists, long fingers, and relaxed bearing contrast sharply with the surrounding horrors 398.

Personality

Su Bai’s apparent obsession with survival originates partly in the wishes of his puzzle pieces. When he first entered the Nightmare World, he did not actively seek death but had no desire to resist it. A Xi and many later ghosts entrusted him with the opposite demand: stay alive at any cost. After returning to the past, protecting his mother gives him a personal reason to live as well 11.

He is cautious, secretive, and practiced at appearing harmless. Temporary teams in his previous life frequently ended in separation or betrayal, so he prefers being dismissed as an unremarkable newcomer to revealing his abilities. Even after demonstrating considerable strength, he conceals his exhaustion and answers questions with half-truths 29 38 44 49.

His friendliness can conceal profound indifference and psychological damage. The narrative connects his “Monster” reputation not only to his power but also to a hidden madness shaped by prolonged torment in the Nightmare World. Nurse Cry is among the beings able to perceive the wounds beneath his outward composure 18 22.

Su Bai does not consider himself a saint and has no ambition to rescue every player. His compassion is selective: he wants to repay Zhang Yibu’s mother for helping his family, risks himself for A Xi, and quietly improves other players’ chances when circumstances allow. He also likes cats and shows affection toward Happy 11 20 30 32 37.

His composure is a survival strategy rather than an absence of feeling. He regards his puzzle pieces as family and understands himself as someone responsible for carrying their wishes forward. Even when he prefers traveling alone, he does not consider himself lonely 60 116 154.

He dislikes ignorance and persistently investigates the Nightmare World, his betrothed, and his own missing memories. His desire for greater power extends beyond immediate survival: he senses an internal demand to become stronger for a coming day, even before he understands what that means 200 201.

His caution can turn into ferocious retaliation when he is cornered. He normally seeks the safest route through a game, but will accept devastating personal costs to seize a final chance of survival and destroy an enemy. Curiosity and a mischievous streak also lead him to find unusual assigned roles interesting despite their risks 279.

Su Bai’s generosity has limits. He initially considers helping Meng Wei escape coercion, but abandons that intention when he recognizes the employee’s contempt for him and Fog City’s inhabitants. As a merchant, he personally evaluates supernatural goods and destroys or withholds items that are useless or potentially dangerous to players 152 374.

His later deceptions are also motivated by protecting people in the Real World. While investigating Qingliu City, he constructs an ambiguous identity suggesting Nameless Society support and denies having surviving local ties, hoping to prevent enemies from targeting Lin Wan, Zhang Yibu, and others connected to him 453.

He accepts support from Wu Heng without wanting to be treated as helpless. Even during periods of physical weakness, he remains capable of fighting and resents the prospect of excessive protection that would deny his agency 596.

Abilities & Skills

Enhanced Puzzle Ability / Vengeful Ghost Puzzle

His original Trait develops into an ability that incorporates subdued vengeful ghosts into his body as puzzle pieces. He can borrow their powers, but must also carry their unfulfilled wishes and obsessions 10 11.

• Power borrowing: Uses individual pieces at the cost of his own reserves; a piece’s strength does not remove that expenditure 11 14.
• Full resonance: Can exchange memories with a piece, experience its wounds, and adopt its appearance when drawing on its full power 20.
• Aftereffects: Stronger pieces cause greater aftereffects. Some beings within the puzzle are difficult even for Su Bai to command 20 43.
• Ghost-like physiology: Borrowed power can make his skin pale and cold and sharply slow his breathing and heartbeat 23.
• Exhaustion limit: Depleting his reserves can temporarily prevent further use of the puzzle 23.
• Independent protection: He recalls being able to leave a puzzle piece outside himself to guard a location in his previous life, but initially lacks the reserves to protect his mother that way 23.
• Mental resistance: The immense puzzle supports an exceptional capacity to withstand mental strain. Zhu Nian’s control does not affect him, even while his own physical strength and reserves remain comparatively undeveloped 102.
• Shadow manifestation: Pieces can return to or emerge from the puzzle through his shadow. A Xi emerges to intercept Ghost Madam’s surprise attack, while Qing Lan returns to the puzzle in his shadow after he fulfills her wish 204 313.
• Environmental suppression: The Mirror World temporarily prevents him from borrowing puzzle powers or even communicating with the pieces. Grandma White nevertheless emerges during a later confrontation there 249 252.

The ability operates through a connection between separate spaces: Su Bai is initially outside a conceptual “door,” while his pieces are within it. Opening and maintaining that connection consumes his power. Immediately after his return, he can only open it a crack; even pieces acting to protect him must limit their output to avoid exhausting him 590.

With increased reserves and the Mist Shop’s support, he gains access to pieces whose doors he could not open in his previous life. Reaching his previous-life peak allows him to maintain the connection long enough for pieces to fight outside his body. During the Mother Tree of Life battle, he sustains a group including Black Umbrella, Little Fire, the Giant Hound, the Ghost Bride, a female ghost, and Yao 420 576 578 590.

Meditation after acquiring the Weird Tree’s power produces a new insight: rather than remaining outside the door and borrowing from those within, he senses himself becoming part of the space containing the puzzle. This develops into a new weapon manifestation and later into the ability to transform substantial locations into Puzzle Pieces 590 596 614 650.

A Xi’s Power

A Xi is Su Bai’s first puzzle piece and the one he knows and trusts most. Their decade together makes their resonance unusually familiar and less distressing to him 20 30.

• Adopts her bridal appearance and supernatural aura 20.
• Uses the A Xi within his puzzle to resonate with and awaken the earlier Ghost Bride 20.
• Produces silver-bell sounds that help divert his attention from Nurse Cry’s sorrow-inducing cries 18.
• Requires substantial reserves for full activation; awakening the Bride nearly exhausts him 20.
• Produces ghost claws, iron chains, and blood condensed from her power. Against Ghost Madam, coating the chain in this blood causes severe pain when an ordinary empowered strike proves insufficient 313.
• Can manifest outside his body to protect him, including taking a surprise strike intended for him 313.
• Later returns to the puzzle at his direction in full view of other players, making the Ghost Bride’s obedience to him unmistakable 619.

Black Umbrella’s Power

Black Umbrella is one of the few male ghosts in the puzzle. His low consumption makes him particularly useful during the forty-eight-hour Happiness Residential Complex game 30.

• Disguise: Makes minor changes to Su Bai’s complexion and hairstyle 30.
• Supernatural sight: His missing left eye sees through supernatural disguises, exposing the complex’s bloodstained corridors and gravestone-like doors 30 34.
• Physical enhancement: Improves stamina, bodily strength, and proficiency with longswords or rod-shaped weapons 30.
• Weapon alteration: Lengthens rod-shaped objects and grants them sword-like properties. Umbrellas become especially sharp because of Black Umbrella’s preferences 35 43.
• Shadow defense: Uses an opened umbrella to block the Hanged Ghost from reaching the Qiu sisters through their shadows 43.
• Conditions and limits: Usually demands clothing suited to his tastes. Greater output rapidly drains Su Bai, and the ghost withdraws his power to prevent overextension 30 44.
• Unavailable technique: Su Bai cannot yet reproduce Black Umbrella’s ability to turn slain ghosts’ heads into umbrellas 43.
• Improvised blades: Later turns a branch into a sharp longsword during the assault on the Mother Tree of Life’s “fruit” 578.

Nurse Cry’s Power

Nurse Cry joins the puzzle after offering to help with Su Bai’s hidden wounds in exchange for being concealed 22.

• Her crying can induce overwhelming grief and memories; Su Bai uses it to help awaken A Xi 18 19.
• Her abilities can aid injured or ill humans, giving Su Bai a possible means of helping his unconscious mother 22.
• Warns him of dangerous entities inside his mother’s hospital room 23.
• Taking her in may involve him with Hospital No. 666 22.

Little Fire’s Power

Little Fire is a long-standing puzzle piece associated with blue flames. Su Bai first encountered it in his previous life as a childlike figure of indeterminate gender wrapped in fire; Little Fire recalls having been a wandering spirit swallowed by a weakened blue flame 83.

• Purification and devouring: With sufficient expenditure, the blue flames can purify and consume what lies before Su Bai 84.
• Release from transformed bodies: Burns a suffering test subject whose condition Cheng Xun says cannot be reversed. She thanks Su Bai before disappearing in the flames 108.
• Interaction with other fire: Adding a small blue flame to Feng Ling’s orange flames destroys Blood Threads that her fire alone cannot overcome 242.
• Clearing foreign power: Can consume Su Bai’s stored energy without returning it to his body. He uses this to remove the disordered Fog City Lord energy causing his side effects 267.
• Flame delivery: Su Bai uses Blood Butterflies to carry Little Fire’s flames onto the Mother Tree of Life’s branches 576.
• Weapon integration: Coats his newly manifested scythe blade in pale blue flame, adding its burning and devouring properties 615.

Other Puzzle Pieces

• Qing Lan: Supplies painting abilities. Su Bai paints with her while sorting through damaged memories, then fulfills her wish by depicting a peaceful remembered morning in Fog City 152 204.
• Grandma White: Freezes the Blood Ghosts threatening Su Bai and Feng Ling in the Mirror World. Su Bai greets her as his grandmother, while Feng Ling perceives an enormous white python gently nuzzling him 252.
• Yao: A long-standing piece acquired after A Xi. Su Bai trusts that Yao will never hurt him, although later events reveal that he understands Yao less completely than he believed. Yao recognizes that Su Xuan’s connection to a shell has “short-circuited” 350.
• Giant Hound / Little Black: An enormous hound associated with Su Bai’s puzzle companions. It helps deal with creatures during the Honghuai City cleanup and is among the pieces summoned against the Mother Tree of Life 350 364 576.

Palm Brand and Mist Shop Access

The Palm Brand is a gift from Su Bai’s supernatural betrothed. It provides a separate means of capturing ghosts and producing merchandise rather than incorporating them into his personal puzzle 9 24.

• Capture: Particularly favors malicious ghosts that feed on fear. Touching one while it is frightened allows the brand to bind it; deeper fear strengthens the binding 9.
• Item creation: Transfers a captured ghost into an ordinary object, granting that object supernatural properties 9 24.
• Power growth: Creating merchandise replenishes and increases Su Bai’s available power; some power remains in the shop after an item is sold 8 24.
• Door access: Opening a handled door with his marked left hand takes him to the shop from either world. Leaving returns him to the entry location 9 38.
• Suspended time: Time outside does not advance while he is inside the Mist Shop 11 37.
• Concealed entry: Power placed in the shop’s door interferes with nearby people and uncanny entities noticing him open or close it 56.
• Additional destination access: By a later period, the shop’s lounge door provides a route back to his mother’s hospital room 141.
• Scattered-energy conversion: The upgraded beads and a self-service device collect dispersed power that he can infuse into items with the brand 190 374.
• Different item outcomes: Complete power from a particular Strange Creature produces merchandise inheriting its traits or abilities. Scattered power instead causes random, uncontrollable item mutations, including useless or unsafe results 374.
• Warehouse preference: Favors the shop’s free, high-quality warehouse objects over ordinary purchased goods, which have a lower success rate for modification 374.

Red Moon Power and Meditation

Exposure to the Red Moon accumulates power that improves players’ physiques and develops their Traits. Su Bai retains a faint amount after returning to the past 5.

• Uses a veteran-developed meditation method to gather scattered power and circulate it deliberately 14.
• The method only slightly accelerates absorption; it is not presented as a developed system of ranked cultivation 14.
• Can remain aware of surrounding activity while meditating 14.
• His post-return absorption efficiency exceeds that of his previous-life peak 12.
• Prolonged meditation improves control sufficiently to reduce the cost of using his power 186.
• Excess power from the Mist Shop gradually strengthens his body and senses when it cannot be fully held within his existing capacity 70 220.
• Can consume relatively weak invasive, murky power almost immediately; the traces carried by Xiao An’s Ice Spike are destroyed before injuring him 381.
• Later assimilates a much larger quantity of tainted energy extracted during mutant treatment, although containing it initially causes discomfort 455 457.
• During combat with a Blood Clan member, channels power through his nerves to sharpen sight, hearing, reflexes, and bodily movement 614.

The white sand in the Mist Shop’s jar represents the size of Su Bai’s maximum power capacity rather than merely his currently available reserves. New merchandise can both enlarge that capacity and refill him. Powerful foreign energy may require conversion or prolonged adjustment even when it shares the Red Moon’s underlying source 59 267 532 586.

Hypnosis and Mutant Treatment

Su Bai later demonstrates Hypnosis as part of treating Qingliu City’s mutants. The supplied accounts do not identify the particular puzzle piece, if any, responsible for this ability 448 455.

• Suppresses bodily functions and relaxes tense muscles before introducing his own power 448 455.
• Spreads his power through a patient as an intricate net to catch and devour fleeing strands of foul energy 448.
• Withdraws both his own power and the chaotic energy when leaving them together would overwhelm the patient’s body 444 455.
• Can contend with a vortex of tainted power by increasing his output until it settles, though advanced cases can approach or exceed his comfortable limits 455.
• Must carefully contain the extracted energy afterward until it is assimilated, rather than treating every case as effortless or risk-free 455 457.

Contracts and Power-Flow Analysis

Wu Heng teaches Su Bai that a low-grade contract can be approached as a knot in a person’s flow of power. Possible methods include untying, freezing, or forcibly breaking that knot. At the time of this explanation, Wu Heng’s freezing of Liu Yongzhi’s contract is temporary rather than a completed cancellation 415.

Su Bai’s awareness of internal power flow also supports identifying, containing, and removing abnormal energy during his later treatments 444 448 455.

Personal Staff and Scythe

Su Bai’s new weapon emerges from an epiphany during a fight with a Blood Clan member. The previously abstract puzzle doorway becomes visible, and pulling its handle detaches it as a short black staff marked with intricate red patterns 614.

• The short staff is roughly the length of his forearm and extends into a long staff when pulled apart 614.
• Continued extension produces a hazy scythe blade, which solidifies into a blood-red blade when supplied with Red Moon power 614.
• Feels exceptionally light and natural in his hands, like an extension of his body 614.
• Severs the Blood Clan opponent’s arm in its initial attack 614.
• Its first rough, scarlet-crystal blade relies on an excessively large power release, much of which disperses wastefully 615.
• Incorporates Little Fire’s flames as Su Bai begins combining the new manifestation with his existing puzzle powers 615.

Wu Heng emphasizes that the weapon and the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle are not opposing abilities: the pieces remain part of Su Bai’s own power and can strengthen the new manifestation 614.

Territorial Puzzle Piece Transformation

During prewar preparations, Su Bai explores extending the puzzle beyond the beings already within him. He proposes releasing his pieces and transforming land, a base, a shop, or a mountain into additional Puzzle Pieces 647.

• Successfully transforms the Nameless Society’s base 650.
• Discovers that transforming the Mist Shop also requires transforming Wu Heng’s Fog Mountain, which is hidden within it 650.
• Initially exhausts his power during the shop’s transformation, with progress reaching roughly one quarter 650.
• Draws on stored Mist Shop power and contributions from his existing pieces to complete the transformation 650.
• Sees a Puzzle Piece outline appear around the shop and experiences a change in the world once the process is complete 650.

Survival Experience

• Scenario analysis: Recognizes Route 444’s dangers and interprets the Happiness Residential Complex’s scoreboard as a contest between human players and ghosts 2 30.
• Role management: Advises players to maintain assigned roles so that confused ghosts do not recover their memories 30.
• Intimidation: Exploits hostile ghosts’ fear of stronger puzzle pieces to enable capture 20 43.
• Borrowed authority: Uses the driver’s fear of his betrothed to obtain cooperation and information 13.
• Reserve management: Normally preserves multiple escape options and refuses to assume that any location is absolutely safe 21 23.
• Language-based investigation: Notices discrepancies between the Lorimas Grand Hotel attendants’ references to “honored guests” and Cheng Xun’s use of “players,” leading him to question whether the mission-giving voice is truly the Administrator 79.
• Ability guidance: Helps Zhang Yibu investigate his Trait and warns against prematurely committing to speed-type body enhancement when a special ability may be possible 220 221.
• Strategic deception: Uses an invented identity and implied organizational backing to protect his real-world connections while investigating dangerous conspirators 453.
• Counter-surveillance and bait: Allows Jiang Hong’s people to follow him openly to the Mist Shop so that they will believe him vulnerable and proceed with their plan 457.
• Broader knowledge: Learns that travel between worlds passes through the Void Sea and comes to question his previous assumption that the White Faction simply means all human players 246 269.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Marriage Contract — Signed in his previous life to survive a lethal encounter. Its bond follows him into the past and links him to the entity that gifts him the Mist Shop. After hearing the name Ghost Shaman, Su Bai wonders whether it corresponds to the illegible characters that appeared beside his signature 5 6 7 66.
• Blood-Red Bead Bracelet — Twelve special-material beads, each capable of serving as a temporary ghost vessel. Occupied beads turn blackish red. Also described as a blood-colored bead necklace worn around his left wrist; later upgraded to collect stray energy and the power of nearby fallen Ghost Creatures, and subsequently unsealed to absorb Red Moon power independently 11 43 190 246.
• Long-handled black umbrella — Used as a shield, club, and supernatural sword through Black Umbrella’s power 43 44.
• Rusty short blade — Manifests when he borrows another puzzle piece’s power; kills the Creepy Infant and old ghost attacking his mother 23.
• White high heels — His first Mist Shop merchandise, created from the White Qipao Paper Figure. Their soles turn blood red, and wearing them makes the body as light as a paper figure 24.
• White-sand jar — Displays the power possessed by Su Bai and the Mist Shop. Initially contains only a sparse layer of sand. Its white sand determines Su Bai’s maximum internal power capacity; during the territorial transformation, contributions from his pieces replenish energy in the shop’s glass jar 8 59 650.
• Mist Shop storeroom clothing — Provides outfits for disguises and Black Umbrella’s demanding fashion preferences 30.
• Cat Spirit ornament — An example of merchandise retaining the traits or abilities of the complete Strange Creature power infused into it 374.
• Black Peace Knot — Wrist ornament formed by Little Black Cat Kai Xin and the other Cat Spirits 246.
• Mini Projector — Lets him monitor the Mist Shop’s surroundings while secluded in the break room; detects players with Red Moon power spying nearby 152.
• Warehouse wheelchair — Used during a period of limited mobility in Fog City. Easier to propel than an ordinary wheelchair 154.
• Painting supplies — Easel and other tools used while borrowing Qing Lan’s power, including to fulfill her wish before leaving Fog City 204.
• Honghuai City key — Opens a door into Su Xuan’s Honghuai City, allowing Su Bai to return there with Wu Heng 620.
• Xiao Wu’s Doll shell — A shop-connected shell used by Wu Heng. Its connection allows the Mist Shop to help regulate Su Bai’s newly acquired power and shelter him through the worst of the adjustment 586.
• Black-and-red staff / blood-red scythe — Personal weapon manifested from the handle of the puzzle doorway. Extends from a short staff into a long staff and scythe, and can carry Little Fire’s flames 614 615.

Relationships

• His mother, Lin Wan — His central attachment after returning to the past. He seeks to save her and suspects ghosts contributed to her death in the original timeline. Later reclaims and restores their family home, brings her there with a caregiver, and searches for a way to nourish or repair her damaged soul 1 23 67 277 367.
• Su Xuan — Older brother whose apparent gambling destroyed their finances. Su Bai initially wants him to beg forgiveness before their mother, though childhood memories show that Su Xuan once protected him at the cost of severe injury and his right little finger. Investigating his disappearance uncovers a Strange Creature’s involvement and a powerful Eerie’s account of becoming Su Xuan. Su Bai eventually embraces the brother he recognizes as genuinely loving and protective, later consulting him about the Administrator 1 19 173 327 351 362 620.
• A Xi — First puzzle piece and an older-sister-like companion for ten years. Her command to keep living fundamentally changes his relationship with survival. Later physically protects him from Ghost Madam’s surprise attack 11 20 21 313.
• Supernatural betrothed — Initially an unidentified entity bound to him by the Marriage Contract. More powerful than Su Bai at his previous peak; gifts him the Mist Shop and Palm Brand. Su Bai later associates the name Ghost Shaman with the contract and investigates Wu Heng’s familiar presence 6 7 9 66 393.
• Wu Heng — Becomes Su Bai’s intimate partner and a source of practical support, instruction, and protection. Teaches him how contracts can be disrupted, uses Xiao Wu’s shop-connected shell to help him through power adjustment, and encourages him to understand his new weapon and puzzle pieces as one whole. His Fog Mountain is hidden within the Mist Shop and must be included in its Puzzle Piece transformation 415 586 604 614 650.
• Xiao Wu — Mist Shop assistant who explains its functions and calls him “boss” or “madam.” Xiao Wu’s power depends on Su Bai and the shop, and their conversations give Su Bai rare opportunities to relax. Later upgrades his beads, restores depleted power, and assists his search for a way to repair Lin Wan’s soul 7 10 190 277 367.
• Black Umbrella — Puzzle piece whose efficient powers support combat and concealment, balanced against clothing demands and warnings about Su Bai’s limited reserves 30 44.
• Nurse Cry — New puzzle piece who recognizes his hidden wounds and offers powers potentially useful for treating his mother 22 23.
• Little Fire — Long-standing, childlike puzzle companion whose blue flames provide powerful purification and devouring abilities. Speaks bluntly to Su Bai, searches for things to consume, and later contributes its flames to his personal scythe 83 84 277 615.
• Qing Lan — Puzzle companion whose painting ability Su Bai borrows. He answers her wish to depict a peaceful remembered version of Fog City before leaving 152 204.
• Grandma White — Puzzle companion Su Bai warmly recognizes as his grandmother. Protects him and Feng Ling in the Mirror World; Feng Ling sees her as a gigantic white python 252.
• Yao — One of his earliest and longest-standing puzzle companions. Su Bai’s confidence in understanding Yao is shaken by later revelations, but his certainty that Yao will never harm him remains absolute 350.
• Zhang Yibu — Fellow Route 444 player and son of a woman who helped care for Su Bai’s mother. Recognizing him gives Su Bai a personal reason to save the newcomers. Later admires Su Bai as his savior, respects his wish for secrecy, and receives guidance on developing his ability 11 212 220 221.
• Aunt Zhang — Lin Wan’s friend and neighboring shopkeeper on Commercial Street. Offers help with medical bills and visits the hospital; Su Bai is grateful for her support and is moved by her familiar parental concern 67 68.
• Wan Shasha and Qin Ge — Route 444 companions whom he warns and helps survive. Qin Ge remains uncertain about his identity but thanks him. Qin Ge later becomes an investigative contact and collaborator in Qingliu City, including arranging mutant treatments and supporting Su Bai’s invented cover identity 6 18 21 438 453 475.
• Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie — Temporary teammates who treat him as a newcomer. He later realizes they are deceased players with confused memories 29 48.
• Feng Ling — Player he secretly rescues while maintaining a different appearance within their shared team. She later becomes a more substantial ally, respects his combat ability, and cooperates with him in the Mirror World. Her invitations to the Nameless Society recur across both lives, though Su Bai initially prefers independence 29 30 60 242 248 252.
• Happy / Kai Xin / Little Black Cat — Golden-eyed black kitten he takes from Room 402. She accompanies him and can transform into a cord around his wrist. Later acts as the Mist Shop’s mascot and displays protective hostility toward those who insult him 33 36 37 79 154.
• Lan Xingchen — Temporary ally in the fight against the Butcher Ghost. Su Bai investigates his guilt and concealed history but privately resolves not to keep his contact information 44 46 50.
• Qiu Man and Qiu Lei — Sisters he protects from the Hanged Ghost. Qiu Lei admires his strength, while he continues concealing his background. Later hires Qiu Lei to replace Meng Wei at the Mist Shop in Fog City 43 49 152.
• Meng Wei — Former Mist Shop employee whose apparent competence initially earns Su Bai’s willingness to help. Su Bai withdraws that goodwill after recognizing Meng Wei’s hatred and predatory attitude toward Fog City’s inhabitants 152 154.
• Jin Zheng and Jin Yi — Brothers whose description of a missing little finger provides a crucial lead to Su Xuan. Su Bai subsequently travels through the Dense Fog Zone with them; their growing awareness of his abilities leaves them uncertain what kind of being he is 172 173 186 190.
• Lin Wenhua — Lin Wan’s biological nephew and one of the novice players Su Bai recognizes during the beginner estate game. Su Bai offers limited hints while constrained by his assigned bride role 288.
• Huo Lang — Friendly Qingliu City player Su Bai meets at the villa by Blood Moon Lake. They enter the mission grounds together 477.
• Chi Yan and Xie Ying — Later game companions during the hospital survival scenario and confrontation with the Mother Tree of Life. Xie Ying’s observation of Su Bai leads her to regard his hidden nature as impossible to see through 543 571 576 578.
• Administrator — Mission-giving figure whose knowledge and special assignments repeatedly draw Su Bai into unusual scenarios. Su Bai questions the figure’s identity, the meaning of the White Faction, and the purpose of assignments involving Lorimas and Chiliu 71 79 246 269 279 620 621.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Return and Route 444 Last Bus

• Reaches Honghuai City First People’s Hospital, but is summoned into Route 444 before seeing his mother. A red-clad bride in his reflection destroys the mist of a ghostly security guard attacking him 2.
• Answers the mysterious shop’s summons and learns that his previous-life Marriage Contract still binds him. Receives ownership of the Mist Shop 5 6 7.
• Warns the other players not to leave at Ghost Village and helps them avoid its wedding-feast invitation 6 16.
• Combines Nurse Cry’s sobbing with his own resonance to awaken A Xi. The Bride attacks Ghost Village, while he captures the frightened White Qipao Paper Figure 18 20.
• Follows A Xi through the burning village, takes Nurse Cry into his puzzle, and chooses to return to the real world after clearing the game 21 22.

Hospital and First Merchandise

• Finds two ghosts preying on his unconscious mother and kills them with borrowed puzzle power 23.
• Reconsiders her original death: her recurring deterioration may have involved supernatural attacks rather than inadequate treatment alone 23.
• Creates the white high heels from his captured paper figure, recovering the reserves exhausted during the rescue 24.

Happiness Residential Complex

• Enters through the Mist Shop and joins Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie’s team while posing as an inexperienced player. Unlike the others, he retains his memories and receives the role of a visitor 29 30.
• Uses Black Umbrella to eliminate awakened spirits, rescue Feng Ling, and inspect the complex’s hidden appearance 30 34.
• Discovers that his assigned “aunt” contains the suffering cats from Room 402. At her request, captures the shadow and cats into his bracelet, then leaves with Happy 35 36.
• Joins Lan Xingchen and the Qiu sisters, reveals enough power to save the sisters, and captures the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost 39 43.
• Uses increased Black Umbrella power to kill the Butcher Ghost with two strikes, then captures its remains while hiding his exhaustion 44.
• Pieces together Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie’s deaths and Lan Xingchen’s involvement. Continues concealing his own history while the survivors regroup 46 48 49.
• Converts captured entities into merchandise while preparing for further fighting. Making Ghost Auntie into an item not for sale restores his reserves and increases his capacity 56.
• Encourages Feng Ling to remember what her own flames can do, both to gain a powerful ally and conserve his expenditure 59.
• Receives another invitation toward the Nameless Society but does not commit himself, reflecting his preference for independent travel 60.
• The game ultimately brings eight products to the shop and starts a sustained improvement in his body through overflowing shop power 70.

Hospital Reunion and Real-World Prospects

• Returns to Lin Wan’s ward and reunites with Aunt Zhang and Zhang Yibu. Greets Zhang Yibu as though they have not met, preserving their Nightmare World connection in front of his mother 67.
• Considers resuming school and taking the entrance exam now that Lin Wan’s condition is stable and the Mist Shop offers financial prospects 67.
• Learns that Qin Ge had wanted to exchange contact information after Route 444 and discusses player matters privately with Zhang Yibu 67 68.
• Later helps Zhang Yibu examine his developing ability, cautioning him not to settle prematurely for speed enhancement if he can discover a more specialized path 220 221.

Lorimas Grand Hotel

• Enters the scenario in an unusual identity rather than as an ordinary player and accepts the role arranged for him despite uncertainty 71.
• Appears as attendant Number Eight and investigates the fifth-floor Infirmary while other players mistake him for a puppet attendant 79.
• Detects differences in how the hotel’s figures refer to visitors, leading him to question the supposed Administrator’s identity and who actually controls the hotel 79.
• Draws on Little Fire’s blue flames and proves resistant to Zhu Nian’s mental control 84 102.
• Fights Cheng Xun’s test subjects. After learning that a transformed attacker cannot be restored, burns her at her own request, receiving her thanks as she disappears 108.
• Following exhaustion, discovers that Lorimas’s life force has become compatible with his remaining power and that he has recovered far more completely than expected 120.

Fog City and the Search for Su Xuan

• Runs the Mist Shop in Fog City, replaces Meng Wei with Qiu Lei, and secludes himself to paint with Qing Lan and work through damaged memories 152.
• Uses a Mini Projector to monitor players spying on the shop and later acts after Qiu Lei leaves in response to troubling news 152 154.
• Remains determined to return to Lin Wan and avoid missing his entrance exams, despite the relative comfort of life in Fog City 158.
• Encounters Jin Zheng and Jin Yi, whose remarks about a man named Su Xuan revive his interest in finding his missing brother. The matching loss of a little finger provides decisive identifying evidence 172 173.
• Pursues information about Su Xuan through the Dense Fog Zone while managing increasingly limited reserves 185 186.
• Receives an upgrade to his beads and a replenishment of power from Xiao Wu, enabling collection of battlefield remnants 190.
• Leads other players out of the Dense Fog, inadvertently earning a reputation among them as a powerful, self-sacrificing leader 195.
• Continues investigating his mysterious betrothed and the power operating within the Mist Shop 200 201.
• Fulfills Qing Lan’s wish by painting a peaceful Fog City morning before returning to the Real World 204.
• During the crossing, sees disturbing visions of himself at a table surrounded by Dolls and a forest of suffering, face-bearing trees. A voice tells him it is not time to remember 204.
• The Fog City Lord’s converted power expands his internal capacity, but the resulting disorder produces substantial side effects 220 267.

Mirror World

• Cooperates with Feng Ling and uses Little Fire’s blue flame to destroy Blood Threads that resist her orange fire 242.
• Learns more about the Void Sea and reflects on the Administrator’s reference to an object associated with an old acquaintance 246.
• Experiences suppression that temporarily prevents communication with or borrowing power from his puzzle pieces 249.
• Is protected by Grandma White when Blood Ghosts surround him and Feng Ling. He recognizes a grandmotherly figure while Feng Ling sees a gigantic white python 252.
• Allows Little Fire to consume all his remaining energy, removing the chaotic foreign power causing his physical side effects 267.
• Questions the Administrator about Su Xuan and the White Faction, discovering that his previous understanding of the factions may be incomplete 269.

Family Home and the Beginner Estate Game

• Reclaims and restores the family home, then brings Lin Wan back with a caregiver 277.
• Suspects her persistent unconsciousness is connected to soul damage and enters the Nightmare World to search for a means of healing it 277.
• Follows Little Fire into an anomalous old residence after it notices a faint blue flame 277.
• Is compelled into a special beginner-game role as a bride, with instructions not to expose his identity or be identified as the murderer 279 288.
• Recognizes Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi among the novice players and offers a limited hint while respecting the restrictions on his speech, movement, and identity 288.
• Investigates pitfalls in the role, including a steward who knew the original bride and might expose his substitution 299.
• Fights Ghost Madam after the Accusation Round. A Xi protects him, and he uses her blood-condensed power to injure an opponent whose illusions conceal her true body 313.

Su Xuan’s Honghuai City and Reconciliation

• Confronts a Strange Creature appearing as Su Xuan and resists attempts to undermine his memories, humanity, and understanding of his family 327.
• Hears references to the Doll Master and connects the title to the Ghost Shaman 327.
• Continues examining gaps in his memories and the unresolved circumstances of his return 329.
• Learns that Su Xuan’s Honghuai City resembles the Real World city but is more than a year behind it 349.
• Receives Yao’s assessment that Su Xuan’s connection to a shell has broken down 350.
• Hears Su Xuan’s account of being a powerful Eerie and lone traveler who became the Su family’s eldest son 351.
• Ultimately embraces the brother he recognizes as the family-loving protector of his childhood, recovering joy and trust that had been obscured by the apparent betrayal 362.
• Helps with the city’s cleanup while still discouraging others from openly explaining his strength 364.

Entrance Exams and Happy Hotel Family Event

• Completes his entrance exams and continues balancing the two worlds while searching for a way to restore Lin Wan’s soul. Xiao Wu and Su Xuan also pursue that problem 367.
• Is selected for the Happy Hotel’s family special event, entering through unusually thick fog rather than immediately arriving at the hotel 367.
• Follows Wu Heng into his room to test the sense that they have met before. Mentioning Yao prompts Wu Heng to seize his wrist and ask him to wait 393.
• Learns from Wu Heng that freezing a contract is not the same as breaking it, then presses him for methods to undo low-grade contracts 415.
• Suspects his actions at the Lorimas Grand Hotel may have contributed through a butterfly effect to Qingliu City’s experiments and infected patients, and decides to investigate 415.

Qingliu City Investigation and Mutant Treatment

• Follows a disturbance near the Mist Shop and offers three plainclothes officers a private place to question a gaunt man. Mentioning Qin Ge persuades them to accept his involvement 435.
• Uses a proposed exchange of information to secure contact with Qin Ge and his companions 438.
• Develops a process for clearing abnormal power from mutants, using bodily suppression and carefully controlled energy infusion 444 448.
• Constructs a false identity with Qin Ge’s assistance, implying Nameless Society backing and a lack of surviving real-world family ties to protect those actually connected to him 453.
• Treats an advanced female mutant whose tainted energy has formed a vortex, then conceals the strain of containing the extracted power 455.
• Lets Jiang Hong’s people follow him to the shop as bait, meditates overnight, and awakens to find the tainted energy fully assimilated 457.
• Continues treating “wild” mutants at Qin Ge’s base while settling into everyday life around the grocery store in University Town 475.
• Enters a two-day villa mission by Blood Moon Lake alongside Huo Lang, a friendly local player 477.

Route 666 and the Mother Tree of Life

• Encounters the Route 666 Bus in a misty overlap between worlds. Recognizing a mass-produced Mist Shop book in a young passenger’s hands, boards to investigate 511.
• Encounters foreign power strong enough to make him feel suffocated despite having surpassed his previous-life strength, deepening his understanding of why the shop converts powerful external energy before channeling it into him 532.
• Navigates an unpredictable hospital survival scenario with other players, remaining alert to creatures that approach during irregular power failures 543.
• Fights the Mother Tree of Life as its power worsens his companions’ symptoms 576.
• Carries Little Fire’s flames to its branches with Blood Butterflies and summons multiple puzzle pieces, ordering them to tear down the tree fused with the hospital 576.
• Uses an improvised branch sword while principally sustaining the pieces’ attacks through his power supply 578.

Power Adjustment, Nightmare Tower, and New Weapon

• Prepares for another difficult adjustment to newly acquired power. Contacts Lin Wan’s caregiver and Qingliu University to explain that his return and freshman registration may be delayed 586.
• Sleeps in Wu Heng’s arms while the shop-connected Doll shell helps regulate the influx 586.
• Meditates through a half-waking state and begins perceiving a possible transformation in the relationship between himself and the puzzle’s inner space 590 596.
• Enters another Nightmare Game before the process is fully settled; Wu Heng remains with him, but Xiao Wu’s sleep-supporting shell stays in the shop 590.
• Observes players with seizing abilities and permits Shen Guanlan’s weak invasive force to enter him in order to investigate it 611 612.
• During combat with a Blood Clan member, materializes a staff from the puzzle doorway’s handle and extends it into a blood-red scythe 614.
• Begins integrating Little Fire’s blue flames into the new weapon rather than treating it as separate from his puzzle abilities 615.
• Publicly affirms his humanity despite Shen Guanlan’s terror at his hidden strength 615.
• Has A Xi return to the puzzle in front of the other players, openly demonstrating his control over the Ghost Bride 619.

Administrator Investigation and Prewar Preparations

• Returns to Su Xuan’s Honghuai City with Wu Heng, using the key and waiting as dawn reanimates the frozen streets and inhabitants 620.
• Reassures Su Xuan that he is not injured and asks about the Administrator and the person capable of contacting Chiliu 620.
• Reflects on the special Administrator’s requests involving remnants such as Lorimas and Chiliu, as well as the use of “coordinates” in the Void Sea 621.
• Encounters a forgotten childhood memory of entering a strange space through a mirror 635.
• Proposes further evolution by transforming locations into Puzzle Pieces, arguing that sufficient power may accelerate a process that normally requires considerable time 647.
• Transforms the Nameless Society’s base, then attempts the Mist Shop 650.
• Learns that Wu Heng’s Fog Mountain is hidden in the shop and must be transformed together with it 650.
• Completes the combined transformation using the shop’s stored energy and assistance from the pieces within him; a Puzzle Piece outline appears around the shop as the world changes 650.

Notable Quotes

“You don't need to worry anymore. … You don't need to be afraid of them anymore, either.”
— Reassuring the Ghost Bride during her awakening 20

“When facing vengeful ghosts and evil spirits, it doesn't matter what I wear. But when facing humans, the more harmless someone like me appears, the better.”
— Explaining his preference for an inconspicuous disguise 37

“I am human.”
— Answering Shen Guanlan’s fear after displaying his new power 615

“As long as we obtain enough power, a miracle might happen in a very short time.”
— Explaining his approach to further ability evolution during prewar preparations 647

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