Chapter Summaries

A Strange Creature told Su Bai and Feng Ling how Jing, a mirror ghost, had saved him and become his lover before sacrificing himself to protect him. Su Bai offered a mirror entrusted to him and questioned whether Jing was truly gone, leaving the Strange Creature trembling.

• The Strange Creature recounted how Jing sheltered him after the Cataclysm and helped him regain his sanity.
• The Strange Creature explained that his kin hunted him after declaring him a traitor, and Jing sealed him inside the Mirror World to protect him.
• The Strange Creature described watching his kin smash Jing’s physical mirror and said he had stayed behind to guard it as Jing slept.
• The Strange Creature admitted he was losing control and believed Jing no longer existed in any mirror fragment.
• Su Bai showed the Strange Creature the round mirror entrusted to him and asked why the Mirror World still existed if Jing was gone.
• Su Bai questioned how the Strange Creature had survived so long without food and whether a Long-Life Species member could become a Ghost Creature.

Su Bai realized the skeletal Long-Life Species had died and was unknowingly sustaining the Mirror World through his obsession with Mirror. After Su Bai reunited the round mirror with the shattered one, Mirror’s hand appeared and reached out to the Long-Life Species.

• Su Bai questioned whether Mirror’s power was sustaining the Mirror World, while the Long-Life Species demanded to know about the round mirror.
• The Long-Life Species stood and revealed that most of his body was a skeleton, though he still hoped the mirror held a trace of his lover.
• Su Bai reasoned that the Long-Life Species had died after fighting his kin and had unconsciously kept the Mirror World alive while waiting for Mirror.
• Su Bai brought the round mirror to the shattered mirror, and it dissolved into pure power that merged with the shards.
• Mirror’s pale hand emerged from a shard, and the Long-Life Species knelt before it as it gently stroked his head.

Su Bai and Feng Ling witnessed the skeletal being reunite with Jing, who revealed that the being had already died. The being accepted death as another form of life and thanked Su Bai for bringing Jing home, then invited him closer.

• Jing reached through the mirror and gently comforted the skeletal being, who welcomed him home after years of waiting.
• Jing told the being that he had died, and the being struggled before calming under Jing's touch.
• The being realized that accepting his death made his hunger disappear and decided to remain with Jing while Jing was nourished by the Void Sea.
• The being thanked Su Bai for bringing Jing home and said Jing wanted to thank him too.
• The skeletal being stood using the mirror frame, turned toward Su Bai and Feng Ling, and invited Su Bai to step forward.

Su Bai reunited with Jing through the shattered mirror and learned that Jing had survived in the Void Sea. Jing shared his understanding of the Void Sea, leaving Su Bai wondering what role the strange Administrator played in it.

• Su Bai approached the shattered mirror and accepted Jing’s outstretched hand.
• Jing thanked Su Bai for bringing him back into the mirror and explained that Chiliu had been close to mental collapse.
• Jing gave Su Bai his understanding of the Void Sea as a gift.
• Su Bai learned that the Void Sea was the Rift connecting the world’s many rifts and crossings.
• Su Bai wondered what role the Administrator played in the Void Sea.

Mr. Mirror explained how rifts connected the Void Sea to different places, worlds, and times, and why finding a powerful coordinate was essential to escape. He and Chiliu were reunited, and Su Bai asked what they planned to do next.

• Mr. Mirror told Su Bai that his connection to the Void Sea began when his consciousness formed and had preserved a wisp of him after his body shattered.
• Mr. Mirror warned that rifts could lead to dangerous places and different times, leaving those who fell through them stranded in the Void Sea.
• Su Bai recalled falling into an abyss in the Void Sea after a previous nightmare game, though he had thought the memory was a hallucination.
• Mr. Mirror thanked Su Bai for helping him find a suitable coordinate, explaining that Chiliu could become his coordinate once his consciousness cleared.
• Mr. Mirror said other beings in the Void Sea might seek coordinates, and Su Bai asked what he and Chiliu intended to do next.

Chiliu dissolved the Mirror World and the Mirror Apartments, with Little Fire consuming the released blood aura as Su Bai and Feng Ling escaped. In the real Nightmare World, the survivors found Chiliu’s skeleton beside Jing’s shattered mirror, and the bones began to move.

• Mr. Mirror explained that Chiliu could leave the Mirror World once he became a coordinate, and Su Bai asked him to spare the living people outside.
• Chiliu told Su Bai that dissolving the Mirror World would release its blood aura, and asked him to have Little Fire consume it.
• Chiliu counted down, the Mirror World shook apart, and Little Fire burned through the surging blood aura as Su Bai and Feng Ling were protected.
• Su Bai and Feng Ling emerged in the Nightmare World with Zhang Yibu, Sang Sang, and the other surviving players, while the Mirror Apartments vanished.
• Su Bai found Chiliu’s skeleton beside Jing’s shattered mirror, and the bones began to move beneath the barren soil.

Chiliu regained his human form and carried Jing’s broken mirror away, beginning a journey to show Jing the world and restore order among his kin. Su Bai left the wasteland with his power drained but his body able to hold far more, and turned his attention to collecting his payment from the Administrator.

• Chiliu reassembled his bones beneath the Red Moon and became a gaunt, flesh-and-blood figure.
• Chiliu lifted Jing’s broken mirror frame and carried it across the sand.
• Feng Ling reflected on love and survival, while Su Bai thought about his mysterious Betrothed, the Ghost Shaman.
• Su Bai told Little Fire they were heading back after the Mirror World vanished and his body’s lingering power was drained.
• Chiliu said he would show Jing the world and seek out his kin to restore their reason or drive them from the world.
• Su Bai let Chiliu go and decided to get the Administrator to pay him.

After clearing the game, Su Bai returned to the Void Sea to ask the Administrator ten questions in exchange for a promised reward. The Administrator hinted that Su Bai’s missing memories might have been stripped away and left as coordinates, but evaded Su Bai’s final question about his brother, Su Xuan.

• Zhang Yibu rushed to tell Su Bai that his research into his ability had succeeded, but the game ended before he could explain.
• Su Bai chose to return to the Real World and found himself back in the Void Sea, where the Administrator greeted him.
• Su Bai asked about the Red Moon, the Nightmare World, the White Faction, the Ghost Shaman, the Administrator’s role, and how humans could stop being Players, but the Administrator refused to answer.
• Su Bai asked why he could not remember parts of his past, and the Administrator told him about a member of Lorimas’s Kin who used memories as coordinates to revisit the past through the Rift.
• Su Bai inferred that his own memories might have been stripped away, but the Administrator offered only the story as an answer and warned that the Void Sea was dangerous.
• Su Bai asked what had happened to his brother, Su Xuan, but the Administrator deflected by asking whether they should discuss how the White Faction could win.

Su Bai asked the Administrator about Su Xuan and the White Faction, but the Administrator explained that humanity’s players were only an advance party in a war between worlds. Back in the Mist Shop’s Rest Room, Su Bai connected this answer to the future disasters he remembered and wondered whether the White Faction meant all of humanity in the Real World.

• The Administrator told Su Bai that the White Faction could not defeat the Black Faction at present, because players in the Nightmare World were only an advance party and one world could only be opposed by another.
• The Administrator expelled Su Bai from the Void Sea before directly answering his question about Su Xuan.
• Su Bai recalled that players would later learn the White Faction’s and Black Faction’s numbers, and that more than 140,000 humans would suddenly appear unprotected in the Nightmare World.
• Su Bai remembered a later count showing 5.6 billion in the White Faction and 3.1 billion in the Black Faction, and concluded that the White Faction might refer to humanity as a whole.
• Su Bai speculated that people were bringing humans into the Nightmare World to prepare for a catastrophe threatening the Real World, then decided to focus on surviving.
• Su Bai returned to the Rest Room of the Mist Shop as the countdown ended.

After returning from a Nightmare Game, Su Bai discovered that the Mist Shop had grown and gained a living room overlooking what he suspected was the Void Sea. He planned to use the power his bracelet had absorbed and make time for his mother and the puzzle pieces.

• Su Bai rested in the upgraded Mist Shop and noticed that the Rest Room had become larger and more comfortable.
• Su Bai opened a newly appeared door and found a living room with sealed windows looking out onto a darkness he thought might be the Void Sea.
• Su Bai saw that the Mist Shop had expanded and considered using the bracelet's accumulated power to make special items for its empty shelves.
• Su Bai noticed Xiao Wu still lying on the counter as a Thread-Wrapped Doll and decided to make time for the puzzle pieces before returning to the shop door.

Lin Wenhua went to an abandoned park with Huang Qi to escape his family’s pressure to find his missing aunt or get into university. At the lake, they spotted someone in a Rainbow Locust No. 1 High School uniform crossing a bridge.

• Lin Wenhua brought Huang Qi to a quiet, abandoned park after arguing with his family about his grandfather’s demands.
• Lin Wenhua told Huang Qi that his grandfather had ordered him to find his estranged aunt or get into university to receive any money.
• Lin Wenhua explained that a fortune-teller’s prediction had inspired his grandfather to name him Wenhua and expect academic success.
• Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi reached the lake and saw a figure in a Rainbow Locust No. 1 High School uniform walking onto the stone bridge.

Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi spotted a Rainbow Locust No. 1 High School student behaving strangely on a bridge in an abandoned park. After Lin Wenhua saw the lake’s moonlight turn red, the student turned toward the water, where Lin Wenhua saw a crowd of people reflected on the otherwise empty bridge.

• Huang Qi told Lin Wenhua how he had beaten a rebellious middle-school friend into focusing on his studies and getting into Rainbow Locust No. 1 High School.
• Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi debated whether they were delinquents before noticing a motionless student on the bridge.
• Huang Qi worried the student might be contemplating suicide, while Lin Wenhua noticed him gesturing and talking to people no one else could see.
• Lin Wenhua briefly saw the moon’s reflection turn red and urged Huang Qi to leave the park.
• The student turned to look at the lake, and Lin Wenhua saw the bridge crowded with people in its reflection.

Lin Wenhua saw eerie figures surrounding Su Bai in the lake’s reflection, though Huang Qi could not see them. After Huang Qi called out and the two approached the bridge, Su Bai recognized Lin Wenhua.

• Lin Wenhua saw ghostly figures reflected around Su Bai and watched them shush him.
• Lin Wenhua tried to pull Huang Qi away, but Huang Qi could not see anything unusual in the lake.
• Huang Qi called to Su Bai and invited him to leave the park with them.
• Lin Wenhua followed Huang Qi to the bridge, where Su Bai recognized him by name.

Su Bai encountered Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi at an abandoned park after spending time with the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle pieces. Recognizing Lin Wenhua as the future hero of the later era—and realizing they were cousins—Su Bai wondered whether Huang Qi was the close friend whose death would shape Lin Wenhua’s future.

• Su Bai took the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle pieces to an abandoned park, where they frightened a person who could see Strange Creatures.
• Lin Wenhua ran toward Su Bai with Huang Qi and urged him to leave, thinking he might be in danger.
• Su Bai recognized Lin Wenhua and recalled how he later became the hero of the later era after receiving his dead friend’s abilities.
• Su Bai recognized Huang Qi as a possible match for Lin Wenhua’s future closest friend.
• Su Bai reflected that Lin Wenhua was his cousin through his mother, Lin Wan.

Su Bai met Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi in the abandoned park, where Lin Wenhua had seen eerie figures in the lake’s reflections. Lin Wenhua took Su Bai with them as they drove away, unaware that their paths would cross again in a more terrifying world.

• Su Bai introduced himself to Huang Qi and learned that Huang Qi and Lin Wenhua had not yet become Players.
• Su Bai sensed that the Mist Shop’s assistant had awakened after the mark on his palm burned.
• Lin Wenhua decided to leave the park and urged Su Bai to come with him and Huang Qi because something was wrong there.
• Su Bai accepted Lin Wenhua’s offer, and the three left the abandoned park in Lin Wenhua’s car.
• After driving far from the outskirts, Lin Wenhua relaxed when he saw Su Bai sitting calmly in the back seat.

Registered user 888 drew the forum’s attention by selling ten Mirror World mirrors and announcing that the Mist Shop had opened. Su Bai planned to attract customers through the forum map while keeping the shop’s location shifting and refusing Real World cash.

• Players flooded the online exchange after registered user 888 logged in, expecting him to list valuable items.
• Registered user 888 listed ten mirrors that let their users enter a Mirror World for ten minutes, and players bought them all.
• The item listing announced the Mist Shop’s opening and explained that players could find it through the forum map, where its location changed.
• Su Bai and Xiao Wu opened the shop after it gained enough power, using the forum map to guide nearby players to it.
• Su Bai decided the shop would not accept Real World cash, while his existing exchange earnings gave him enough to pay his debts and bring his mother, Lin Wan, home from the hospital.

Su Bai brought his unconscious mother, Lin Wan, back to the family home and then entered the Nightmare World to search for a way to heal her damaged soul. There, Little Fire spotted a faint blue flame entering an eerie old residence and rushed inside, with Su Bai following.

• Su Bai reclaimed and restored his family home, then arranged for Lin Wan to return there with a caregiver.
• Su Bai learned that Xiao Wu could not explain Lin Wan's continued unconsciousness and suspected that her soul had been damaged.
• Su Bai left for the Nightmare World through the Mist Shop to search with Xiao Wu for a way to nourish Lin Wan's soul.
• Su Bai brought Little Fire along as he walked through the ruined streets beneath the Red Moon.
• Little Fire spotted a faint blue flame entering an out-of-place old residence and rushed toward it, forcing Su Bai to follow.

Su Bai found Little Fire in the old residence after Little Fire devoured another flame. The Nightmare Game’s Administrator forced Su Bai to join the Beginner Game “Ghost Bride” as a missing character, leaving him to prepare to play his assigned role.

• Su Bai explored the old residence and followed a blue glow to the eastern courtyard.
• Su Bai found Little Fire in human form, and Little Fire admitted that he had devoured the other flame in self-defense.
• The Administrator warned Su Bai that he had entered a Beginner Game scenario and invited him to fill a missing role.
• The Administrator told Su Bai to keep his identity hidden and warned that anyone identified as the murderer would fail and be trapped in the scenario.
• The Administrator began the Beginner Game “Ghost Bride” and sent Su Bai its background story.

Su Bai was compelled to take part in a beginner game at an estate as one of three ghost brides, while concealing his identity and avoiding being identified as the murderer. The game began as novice players arrived to investigate who had drowned the brides.

• Su Bai resolved to play cautiously and hide his identity unless the game left him no hope of survival.
• Su Bai learned that Master Wang had promised to marry a village girl, but three villages sent brides to his estate at once.
• The three brides were found drowned in the estate pond the morning after their arrival, and Master Wang disappeared.
• Su Bai discovered that he had taken the place of the gentle bride from the Eastern Courtyard, while novice players had twenty-four hours to identify the murderer.
• Su Bai heard sounds outside and realized the novice players had arrived.

Lin Wenhua, Huang Qi, a teddy-bear girl, and a self-proclaimed member of the Relevant Authorities appeared in an abandoned courtyard beneath a blood-red moon. The man introduced the Nightmare World and claimed the newcomers were fortunate to meet him, but the group had yet to learn how they could survive or leave.

• Lin Wenhua, Huang Qi, the teddy-bear girl, and a practical-looking man appeared in the residence's abandoned rear courtyard.
• The four noticed the blood-red moon and felt an unnatural cold that seemed to come from inside their bodies.
• Huang Qi tried to reassure the teddy-bear girl, but she and Lin Wenhua backed away suspiciously.
• The man warned that creatures might be watching them and hunting them in the darkness.
• The teddy-bear girl questioned the man, who claimed he was a young core member of the Relevant Authorities investigating disappearances in the Real World and the Nightmare World.