Chapter Summaries

Chen Xi, Zhuang Anping, and Su Bai were cornered by Fish-Head Freaks that could pass through walls, but Su Bai used a sharpened umbrella to kill one. He continued claiming to be Xiao Lou, while keeping Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping close as potential sources of information and company.

• Chen Xi used a Special Bullet to set one Fish-Head Freak ablaze, forcing the others to retreat temporarily.
• The remaining Fish-Head Freaks passed through a wall and surrounded Chen Xi, Zhuang Anping, and Su Bai from both sides.
• Chen Xi fired at the monsters behind them, but one dodged the bullet and leaped out of a wall toward the group.
• Su Bai used a Transparent Long-Handled Umbrella empowered by Black Umbrella to sever the attacking Fish-Head Freak's head.
• The dying Fish-Head Freak muttered that it needed water, and Su Xuan burned its remains away with blue flame.
• Chen Xi questioned Su Bai's identity, but he insisted that he was Xiao Lou, a student at Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School.

Su Bai, Chen Xi, and Zhuang Anping fought their way through a school building filled with Fish-Head Freaks and reached the rooftop. They found the campus swarming with monsters beneath the blood-red moon, leaving them trapped above a black tide.

• Chen Xi tossed Zhuang Anping a Folding Knife, and he cut curtains into ropes while Su Bai used Little Fire's blue flames to drive back the Fish-Head Freaks.
• Su Bai pierced a Fish-Head Freak with his Long-Handled Umbrella and learned from Little Fire that the monster tasted like wood.
• Chen Xi led Su Bai and Zhuang Anping toward the rooftop, and the three fought their way up the stairs as the Fish-Head Freaks pursued them through the walls.
• Chen Xi blasted open the locked rooftop door, and Su Bai used blue flames to block the monsters from following them onto the roof.
• Su Bai looked across the campus and saw countless Fish-Head Freaks surging beneath the blood-red moon.

At Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School, Su Bai learned that the Administrator had directed memory-restored players to gather there, while dawn drove the Fish-Head Freaks away. Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping hoped Su Bai could use fire to fight other freaks, but he revealed he could not leave the school.

• Su Bai asked Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping their names and learned that the Administrator had told recovered players to come to Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School.
• Dawn broke over Honghuai City, and the Fish-Head Freaks retreated from the campus.
• Chen Xi described other freaks the players had encountered and suggested Su Bai might use fire to defeat them.
• Su Bai said he could not leave Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School, or even the Teaching Building.

Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping left Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School to explore Honghuai City and search for Chen Hai, while Su Bai remained trapped at the school. Back in the Teaching Building, Su Bai encountered the apparently dead Zhang Chen, who blamed him for leaving and taking his place as the teacher’s target.

• Chen Xi explained that she had to search Honghuai City for Chen Hai, and Zhuang Anping chose to accompany her rather than stay at the school.
• Chen Xi promised to record what they encountered outside, and Su Bai said he would welcome them back to Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School.
• Su Bai watched Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping leave, then remained at the Teaching Building as dawn broke over the campus.
• Su Bai returned to the Fifth Floor and encountered Zhang Chen, whom he believed had already died.
• Zhang Chen accused Su Bai of leaving too soon, forcing him to become the lowest-ranked student and suffer confinement in the Study Room; another voice then appeared in Su Bai’s mind.

Su Bai heard Zhang Chen blame Xiao Lou for abandoning the Merfolk, whose people had been tortured in experiments in the Void Sea. He wondered what connection Su Xuan had to the Merfolk’s suffering as the school’s second day began.

• Zhang Chen accused Xiao Lou of leaving him to suffer bullying and die in the Study Room.
• Su Bai heard a Merfolk voice accuse a former leader of abandoning his people and causing their deaths in experiments.
• The voice described how the Merfolk were tethered in the Void Sea and forced to search for a rift and become coordinates for a passage.
• Zhang Chen faded, leaving Su Bai to wonder whether Su Xuan had been an experimenter, a Merfolk victim, or the leader who fled.
• Outside Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School, Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping found Honghuai City worse than it had been on the first day.

Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping walked through Honghuai City in daylight, unseen and unheard by the people around them. As Zhuang Anping wondered whether the city controlled everyone’s actions, they noticed that the pedestrians moved in eerie silence.

• Chen Xi reassured Zhuang Anping that they could return to Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School if danger arose.
• Zhuang Anping described the unsettling feeling of being alive but invisible and questioned whether Honghuai City forced people to follow a set routine.
• Chen Xi tried to ease Zhuang Anping’s worries by suggesting they enjoy the freedoms of daytime.
• Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping noticed that the city’s pedestrians stared ahead and walked silently like puppets, and Chen Xi wondered whether they had behaved that way the previous day.

Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping observed that Honghuai City’s residents had become silent and vacant, making the second day of the nightmare game seem more difficult than the first. They decided to find Chen Xi’s brother and check the Eerie resurgence level on the Commercial Street screen.

• Zhuang Anping compared the lifeless pedestrians with how normal Honghuai City had seemed the previous day.
• Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping noticed that the pedestrians avoided communicating or even making eye contact.
• Zhuang Anping linked the city’s isolation to his failure to fulfill the Administrator’s Rules, and Chen Xi reminded him that he had ignored his wife’s requests.
• Chen Xi concluded that the tasks were becoming harder and feared more Players would die as the nightmare game progressed.
• Chen Xi urged Zhuang Anping to find her brother and check the Eerie resurgence level on the Commercial Street screen.

Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping discovered that the Eerie resurgence had risen to 11% and found Chen Hai acting like a Player who had lost his memories. After preparing to rest for the coming battle, the story shifted to Su Bai, who was approached on the school rooftop by “Su Xuan.”

• Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping saw the Eerie resurgence display rise from 1% to 11% and hurried to check on Chen Xi’s brother.
• At the Chen family villa, Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping found Chen Hai unable to respond to the servants and concluded he was likely a Player who had lost his memories.
• Chen Xi fired a shot near Chen Hai, startling him and showing that the dead could still make the living sense their presence.
• Chen Xi and Zhuang Anping left the villa to rest and prepare for the likely battle that night, while Chen Xi hoped Chen Hai would join their group.
• At Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School, Su Bai stood on the Rooftop looking toward his family’s house when “Su Xuan” approached and asked what he thought of this world.

Su Bai confronted Su Xuan about the secrets hidden in the artificial Honghuai City and suspected Su Xuan was afraid to reveal his identity. As Fish-Head Freaks climbed the building during a storm, Yao manifested and kicked the faltering Su Xuan down.

• Su Bai told Su Xuan that the city's time lag reflected the year since Su Xuan left home and that the game's real challenge lay in the secrets hidden there.
• Su Bai challenged Su Xuan to prove who he was and asked why he would not speak directly, suspecting he feared being identified too soon.
• Su Xuan grew pale and unsteady, and Su Bai noticed faint wood grain on his face and wondered whether his body was made of wood.
• A storm darkened the sky, and Fish-Head Freaks reappeared and began climbing the building toward Su Bai.
• Yao manifested beside Su Bai and kicked Su Xuan down, and Su Bai heard him hit the ground with the dull thud of timber.

Su Bai called Little Black to fight off the rain-empowered Fish-Head Freaks while Yao examined Su Xuan, who had collapsed after his connection to the shell short-circuited. Yao revived Su Xuan by tightening a cord around his neck, the storm stopped, and Su Bai demanded a straightforward explanation from them.

• The rain strengthened the Fish-Head Freaks, making Su Bai’s blue flames less effective against them.
• Su Bai summoned Little Black, whose lightning attacks struck the Fish-Head Freaks and protected the rooftop.
• Yao said Su Xuan’s connection to the shell had short-circuited and tied a cord around the fallen figure’s neck.
• Su Xuan sat up coughing, and the thunderstorm abruptly ended.
• Su Xuan asked how Yao had entered the isolated game, and Yao replied that Su Xuan had brought him in.
• Su Bai asked Yao and Su Xuan to stop speaking in riddles and explain what was happening.

Su Xuan began explaining why he had taken the form of Su Bai’s brother, revealing that loneliness in the Nightmare World had led him to seek a way into another world. His account left off as he described how the Ghost Shaman helped him make his first shell.

• Su Bai tied back his wet hair with a white cord Yao gave him before Yao returned to the Puzzle Piece.
• Su Xuan was stunned that Yao had appeared and asked Su Bai why he was there.
• Su Bai told Su Xuan that Yao was his Puzzle Piece and family, while Su Xuan recognized how much Su Bai had changed.
• Su Bai asked whether Su Xuan was really Su Xuan and why an Eerie had grown up as the Su Family’s eldest son.
• Su Xuan said he had been a powerful lone wanderer in the Nightmare World who had lost his companions and grown tired of his solitude.
• Su Xuan explained that he had sought the Ghost Shaman’s help to cross the Void Sea and make his first shell.

Su Xuan explained how the Ghost Shaman sent him to the Real World in a child’s shell, where he created a family role for himself to comfort Lin Wan after her husband died. He recalled enjoying life as Su Bai’s older brother until Su Bai turned five, leaving the reason for that change unrevealed.

• Su Xuan told Su Bai that he had pestered the Ghost Shaman for a way to reach the Real World and had to enter a human child’s shell to pass through the hidden passage.
• Su Xuan asked the Ghost Shaman to maintain a communication channel and received a mirror that let him call for help.
• Su Xuan wandered the Real World alone until he saw Lin Wan grieving for her husband while caring for her baby.
• Su Xuan persuaded the Ghost Shaman to let him use a little power to make Lin Wan remember him as her five-year-old son.
• Su Xuan supported Lin Wan and cared for the baby as the eldest son of the Su Family, until he recalled that things changed when Su Bai turned five.

Su Xuan showed Su Bai the hidden memory behind his fall from a window at age five. Su Bai saw that he had fallen while trying to save their mother from Ghost Creatures, and the memory ended as he plunged toward her.

• Su Xuan explained that he had been away from the Real World for more than a day while visiting his family’s homeland, and said certain things had happened.
• Su Xuan touched Su Bai and sent him into the memory of his childhood fall.
• Five-year-old Su Bai saw his mother, Lin Wan, returning home and noticed two Ghost Creatures creeping up behind her.
• One Ghost Creature covered Lin Wan’s ears while the other raised its claws to strike her.
• Su Bai shouted to warn his mother, then lost his balance and fell from the window, determined to stop the Ghost Creature from hurting her.

Su Bai relived the forgotten memory of falling from a window and being saved by a cracked, red-eyed figure wearing Su Xuan’s shell. Back on the Rooftop of Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School, Su Bai concluded the rescuer was not his brother, and Su Xuan admitted the Strange Creatures that threatened Lin Wan had also been connected to him.

• A red-eyed figure wearing Su Xuan’s shell caught young Su Bai as he fell from the third-floor window.
• The shell cracked and lost control, so the figure fell with Su Bai and shielded him from the impact.
• The figure told Su Bai he would forget the incident and urged him to live an ordinary life before lamenting that he could not repair the broken parts.
• Su Bai returned to the Rooftop of Rainbow Locust Tenth Middle School and asked Su Xuan what had happened.
• Su Bai reasoned that someone else had worn Su Xuan’s shell because Su Xuan had been away from the Real World during the accident.
• Su Xuan admitted that the Strange Creatures that had tried to attack Lin Wan had appeared because of him.

Su Xuan explained that traces of Red Moon power had leaked from his doll shell, attracting strange creatures after he left home and putting Su Bai in danger. The Ghost Shaman saved Su Bai using the shell, but its little finger broke, and everyone retained the memory of Su Xuan losing it to save his younger brother.

• Su Xuan said the Ghost Shaman had sealed his power in a doll shell to prevent him from disturbing the Real World’s order.
• Su Xuan explained that Red Moon power leaked from the shell over time, leaving traces on the Su Family home and its residents.
• Su Xuan said strange creatures avoided the home while he was there but came after Su Bai when Su Xuan left.
• Su Xuan recalled that the Ghost Shaman had found strange creatures near the home and saved Su Bai from a dangerous fall using the doll shell.
• Su Xuan explained that the shell’s little finger broke under the Ghost Shaman’s power, and the memory of Su Xuan losing it to save Su Bai could not be erased.

Su Xuan revealed that he had chosen to return to the Real World because he could not bear to leave Lin Wan and Su Bai, despite the dangers and cost. After explaining why he had eventually left, he asked Su Bai what unusual information he had discovered at the school.

• Su Xuan begged the Ghost Shaman to let him return to Lin Wan and Su Bai, and the Ghost Shaman eventually agreed to help him.
• Su Xuan and the Ghost Shaman upgraded the Doll before Su Xuan returned to the Real World.
• Su Xuan reunited with Su Bai but withheld some memories, knowing the truth might make his choice seem selfish.
• Su Bai asked why Su Xuan had left, and Su Xuan said something had forced him to go.
• Su Xuan asked Su Bai what he had discovered in the building, and Su Bai recalled voices mentioning experiments, merfolk, and the Merfolk Tribe.

Su Xuan explained why he had abandoned his merfolk body and leadership: he wanted to preserve his sanity after his people’s civilization collapsed and the Red Moon drove remnants toward madness. He left to avoid being captured for a dangerous experiment and to keep its pursuers from turning their attention to the Real World.

• Su Xuan asked Su Bai whether he had encountered other remnants, then explained that displaced remnants gradually lost themselves under the Red Moon.
• Su Bai recalled Chiliu’s story and realized that the Blood Clan’s former leader had likely retained his sanity by becoming an eerie being.
• Su Xuan said his family had died, he had never accepted the role of leader, and he abandoned his merfolk body to survive apart from his people.
• Su Xuan revealed that Merfolk Remnants were being imprisoned as test subjects in a dangerous experiment, and that pursuers were searching for him despite his loss of merfolk power.
• Su Xuan said he and the Ghost Shaman learned that the pursuers could locate him and cross the Void Sea, so he decided to leave before they could reach the Real World.

Su Xuan explained that he had left his old shell in the Real World and hidden himself inside an imitation of Honghuai City, believing his family would be happier without him. After another being wearing his shell revealed what had really happened to his family, Su Xuan’s regret and anger began making the City and its Dolls mutate.

• Su Xuan left his shell in the Real World, where a weak Ghost Creature possessed it, and hid inside a replica of Honghuai City.
• Su Xuan described how a man wearing his shell entered the replica and found Lin Wan and Su Bai living there.
• The intruder asked why Lin Wan was still alive, revealing that Su Xuan’s belief in his family’s happy life had been a selfish fantasy.
• Su Xuan’s anger and regret brought rain and strange changes to the City’s Dolls.
• Su Xuan tried to contain his negative emotions, but the flawed replica and its Dolls continued to mutate and awaken.

Su Xuan returned to the Real World to see Su Bai grieving their mother, Lin Wan, and resolved to search the Void Sea for a way to change their past. After reaching a rainy night when Su Bai was being driven from home, Su Xuan made himself a coordinate anchor to give his brother a chance to survive, leaving the Ghost Shaman instructions to help him if needed.

• Su Xuan visited the Real World and saw Su Bai mourning Lin Wan, whose death and the family’s collapse left him devastated.
• Su Xuan entered the Void Sea with a white cord and Silver Bells tied to him, while the Ghost Shaman warned him of the danger and kept the other end at Fog Mountain.
• Su Xuan endured the Void Sea’s illusions and dwindling strength, glimpsed Su Bai’s future in the Nightmare World, and continued searching for a rift.
• Su Xuan reached a rainy night in Honghuai City and saw Su Bai driven from home by relatives demanding repayment of Su Xuan’s debts.
• Unable to act or return, Su Xuan cut the white cord and turned himself into a coordinate anchor in Su Bai’s shadow.
• The Ghost Shaman retrieved Su Xuan’s message asking him to give Su Bai another chance if he ever had no way out.

Su Xuan reassured Su Bai that their mother had woken and the family debts were paid, then warned him that powerful forces were targeting people who could enter the Void Sea. Su Bai suspected the Administrator was Su Xuan’s old acquaintance and possibly a merfolk remnant, and asked whether Su Xuan had brought Players to Honghuai City just to warn him.

• Su Bai told Su Xuan that their mother had woken from her coma, though she had forgotten Su Xuan, and that the family's debts were paid and their house restored.
• Su Xuan warned Su Bai that forces who had exploited the merfolk remnants were targeting other test subjects capable of entering the Void Sea.
• Su Bai inferred that Su Xuan knew he had broken the rules in the Ghost Bride's Manor and worried that the Administrator had told him.
• Su Bai wondered whether the Administrator was Su Xuan's old acquaintance and a merfolk remnant, then asked if Su Xuan had brought Players to Honghuai City to warn him.