Chapter Summaries

Su Bai signed the confidentiality agreement, but his Marriage Contract with the Ghost Shaman destroyed the contract’s power before it could control him. Jiang Hong and Kong Rui revealed that they believed Su Bai could no longer leave, and Jiang Hong stopped him with a command.

• Su Bai felt the low-grade contract invade his body, but the Marriage Contract with the Ghost Shaman surfaced and crushed its power.
• Yao and the other Puzzle Pieces reassured Su Bai, and he concealed his resistance while asking Jiang Hong and Kong Rui what they wanted to tell him.
• Kong Rui questioned whether Su Bai belonged to the Nameless Society, and Jiang Hong said that his affiliation no longer mattered because he could not return to the Nightmare World.
• Kong Rui revealed that Su Bai could not go anywhere, while Jiang Hong admitted they had deceived him about being able to leave.
• Su Bai tried to get out of bed, but Jiang Hong ordered him to stop, and Su Bai became completely motionless.

Su Bai pretended to be trapped by Jiang Hong and Kong Rui’s fake contract while learning that they had brought him to the Qingliu City Underground Secret Research Institute. The chapter ended with Jiang Hong boasting that the contract had put Su Bai’s life in their hands, unaware that Su Bai could escape it.

• Yao told Su Bai that the contract controlling his body was fake and that he could break free by finding and devouring its node.
• Jiang Hong and Kong Rui admired Su Bai’s stillness and discussed using him as a valuable consultant for their experiments.
• Jiang Hong released Su Bai’s body, and Su Bai feigned confusion and fear about the human experiments and the Mutants.
• Jiang Hong revealed that Su Bai was in the Qingliu City Underground Secret Research Institute and refused to let him leave.
• Jiang Hong admitted that Su Bai had signed a low-grade contract and claimed that Su Bai could not escape.

Su Bai followed Jiang Hong and Kong Rui through an underground institute while pretending to believe their promise that their experiments could free him from his contract. Jiang Hong revealed that the supposed immortality drug was a cover for experiments aimed at evolving their abilities and escaping the Nightmare World and the Red Moon.

• Su Bai asked whether his contract could be canceled, and Jiang Hong falsely promised it would be if Su Bai cooperated with their experiments.
• Jiang Hong and Kong Rui led Su Bai through the institute and told him their boss was Qi Yan, a powerful ability user.
• Kong Rui said they were developing an immortality drug, but Jiang Hong explained that it was a pretense to secure funding and technical support from wealthy Real World elites.
• Jiang Hong revealed that he, Kong Rui, and Qi Yan wanted to use mutations to increase their strength and evolve their abilities beyond human limits.
• Jiang Hong said they hoped their experiments would help them escape the Nightmare World and stop fearing the Red Moon.

Jiang Hong explained that the Laboratory’s attempt to create an Elixir of Immortality had only produced monstrous Mutants until Su Bai’s treatment removed most of their defects. He revealed that the experiment was based on a serum made from merfolk, and the group had come to Qingliu City seeking a way to reproduce that power.

• Jiang Hong told Su Bai that the failed experiments turned their subjects into bloodthirsty monsters with scales and poor healing.
• Jiang Hong said Su Bai had repaired the treated Mutants’ wounds and given them extraordinary healing, making him essential to the experiment.
• Su Bai asked why the group had started the experiments, and Jiang Hong explained that Players in the Nightmare World had transformed after taking an unfinished Elixir of Immortality made from merfolk serum.
• Jiang Hong said the group had linked Qingliu City’s Mutants to the power they sought and had volunteered to enter the city.
• Jiang Hong told Su Bai that the group had found something extraordinary in Qingliu City.

Su Bai reconstructed how Qi Yan’s team had captured Qingliu City’s first mutant and started secret experiments using a rotting merfolk corpse as the source of the mutations. Jiang Hong revealed that the team had been delighted to find Su Bai, leaving their intentions toward him unclear.

• Su Bai concluded that Qi Yan’s team had coveted the fish-men’s abilities and joined the Official Team to gain access to powerful allies and sponsors.
• Su Bai reasoned that the four had captured Qingliu City’s first mutant, traced the mutation to its source, and begun experiments at the Underground Research Institute.
• Jiang Hong told Su Bai that the incredible thing found in Qingliu City was a merfolk corpse that had already begun to rot.
• Su Bai realized the corpse’s flesh and blood caused Qingliu City’s grotesque mutations, unlike the serum that had created the stronger fish-men.
• Jiang Hong told Su Bai that the team had been delighted when they found him and looked at him like a valuable treasure.

Su Bai entered the Underground Research Institute, where Jiang Hong and Qi Yan expected him to use his ability to improve their mutant experiments. Qi Yan threatened to turn Su Bai into an experimental subject if he refused, then revealed that the mutants restrained in the laboratory were players.

• Jiang Hong led Su Bai and the others through a coded entrance into the Underground Research Institute's laboratory.
• Su Bai saw researchers working on chained mutants, some of whom struggled against their restraints.
• Qi Yan approached Su Bai and asked him to treat the mutants so the researchers could study the effects.
• Su Bai protested that treating every mutant would exhaust him and said he had only agreed because Jiang Hong promised to terminate his contract.
• Qi Yan threatened to inject Su Bai with the unfinished drug and turn him into a scaled monster if he refused.
• Qi Yan said the laboratory's experimental subjects were players, and Su Bai's pupils contracted in shock.

Su Bai pretended to comply with Qi Yan while treating the mutant Players and removing their low-grade contracts, feeding the corrupted power to Little Fire. After an Experimental Subject vanished from an operating table, Qi Yan and his people suspected the Nightmare World had taken him.

• Su Bai agreed to treat the Experimental Subjects under Qi Yan's threat and began removing their Merfolk-derived power and low-grade contracts.
• Su Bai secretly summoned Little Fire to consume the filthy power he stripped from the mutants.
• Lin Xiao'an arrived and used Hypnosis to calm the struggling Experimental Subjects.
• An Experimental Subject Su Bai had treated disappeared from an operating table, leaving Qi Yan and the researchers bewildered.
• Kong Rui suggested the Nightmare World had taken the missing Experimental Subject.

A player vanished from the Laboratory after Su Bai treated him, and Qi Yan blamed the incident on Su Bai. Qi Yan discovered that dozens of names had disappeared from the contract and that Su Heng’s name was missing, leaving the others questioning whether Su Bai had ever signed it.

• A player disappeared from the operating table after Su Bai treated him, and Qi Yan confirmed the thermal cameras showed nothing.
• Jiang Hong questioned whether players were being forcibly pulled into the Nightmare World, but Qi Yan insisted the Contract Book promised enslaved players would die when their life force ran out.
• The researchers told Qi Yan they had been about to draw the treated player’s blood when he vanished, and Qi Yan threatened them before turning to accuse Su Bai.
• Qi Yan checked the contract and found that only forty-odd names remained instead of more than sixty, with Su Heng’s name missing.
• Jiang Hong insisted Su Bai had signed the contract, and Qi Yan stared at him in disbelief.

Su Bai revealed his power over blue flames after refusing Qi Yan’s demand to kill himself, and confronted Qi Yan about the merfolk’s corpse. When Qi Yan fled as hypnotized experimental subjects attacked, Su Bai sent his companions after him and the others.

• Qi Yan demanded that Su Bai kill himself, but Su Bai refused.
• Qi Yan attacked Su Bai with fire, and Little Fire appeared and devoured the flames.
• Qi Yan accused Su Bai of freeing experimental subjects from their contracts, and Su Bai asked to see the merfolk’s corpse.
• Hypnotized experimental subjects broke free and charged at Su Bai, while Qi Yan, Jiang Hong, Lin Xiao'an, and Kong Rui fled through the iron door.
• Su Bai let his companions pursue Qi Yan and the others while he faced the attacking experimental subjects.

Qi Yan and his companions fled through the Underground Research Institute after realizing Su Bai had exposed their scheme. They escaped the black-mist wolf in an elevator, but Qi Yan saw a red wedding dress beside him as the chapter ended.

• Qi Yan blamed Su Heng's introduction for exposing their plan and explained that he had sent the mutants to kill Su Bai, believing Su Bai would not hurt them.
• Kong Rui picked up a painting that transformed their portraits into injured monsters, and spectral figures flew out of it.
• A giant wolf surrounded by black mist appeared in the passage, and Qi Yan and the others ran for the elevator.
• The wolf stopped outside as the elevator doors closed, and the group began to relax while the elevator rose.
• Kong Rui, Jiang Hong, and Lin Xiao'an stared in terror beside Qi Yan, who saw a red wedding dress.

Qi Yan and his companions were trapped between the Ghost Bride and a terrifying boy who demanded they sign Contracts. Kong Rui and Lin Xiao'an chose to sign so they could survive, while Jiang Hong and the others faced the same impossible choice.

• The Ghost Bride appeared in the elevator and cut Qi Yan's neck while Jiang Hong frantically pressed the floor buttons.
• When the elevator opened, Kong Rui, Lin Xiao'an, and Jiang Hong scrambled into the corridor and encountered a dark-eyed boy holding four Contracts.
• The boy summoned the Black Mist Wolf and surrounded the group with eerie shadows, while the Ghost Bride remained behind them in the elevator.
• The boy said they could leave if they signed the Contracts, explaining that no one was allowed to hurt Su Heng.
• Kong Rui and Lin Xiao'an grabbed the pens and Contracts, and Jiang Hong realized they had no choice but to comply.

Qi Yan and the others were forced to sign contracts by a Strange Creature, then were left immobilized when the apparitions vanished. Su Bai arrived with the recovered mutants and confronted the captives, declaring they would spend their lives paying for what they had done.

• Qi Yan refused to sign, ignited himself, and charged at the boy, who restrained him with a white cord and repeatedly slammed him against the floor.
• The boy forced Qi Yan to make a mark on the contract, and Jiang Hong and the others signed their own contracts in terror.
• The boy and the other Strange Creatures vanished, and Qi Yan, Jiang Hong, and the others found themselves unable to move.
• Su Bai entered the passage with a group of recovering scale-covered mutants, while a Puzzle Piece's power kept them calm.
• Su Bai told the immobilized captives that they would spend the rest of their lives paying for what they had done.

Su Bai learned where Qi Yan and the others had hidden the merfolk remains and went to inspect them, while their former Mutant subjects turned against them. After Yao warned him that dangerous threads still connected the corpse to powerful beings, Su Bai left the underground level and decided to leave the unresolved remains to Qin Ge.

• Su Bai passed Qi Yan and the others as the Mutants they had enslaved approached with a new contract that appeared to make them the Mutants’ slaves.
• Su Bai rode the elevator to the lowest level of the Underground Research Institute and found a merfolk corpse nailed to the wall.
• Yao warned Su Bai that threads controlled by powerful beings remained connected to the merfolk’s body.
• Su Bai left the corpse behind and decided to let Qin Ge handle the remains while he avoided the beings watching them.

Qin Ge and his Player squad reached the Underground Research Institute and learned from the Mutants how Qi Yan and the others had abducted and tortured them as Experimental Subjects. Qi Yan realized his ambitions were finished, while the Mutants prepared to keep him and his accomplices alive for trial.

• Qin Ge arrived at the Laboratory with his squad after tracking Jiang Hong and the others to the abandoned factory and searching for the institute entrance.
• Qin Ge found Qi Yan and his accomplices incapacitated and questioned the Mutants about what had happened.
• A Mutant told Qin Ge how Qi Yan and the others had deceived ordinary people and subjected them to inhuman treatment in the Laboratory.
• Qin Ge kicked Qi Yan and asked whether the prisoners could still walk so they could be taken elsewhere for trial.
• A Mutant showed Qin Ge the Contract and said Qi Yan and the others would be kept alive for the journey, even if only their heads and necks remained.
• Qi Yan realized that his ambitions were over and wondered whether he would have met this fate if he had stayed an ordinary Player.

Su Bai treated more than thirty imprisoned mutants in the Underground Research Institute, then left Qin Ge and his team to handle the investigation. He returned to the Mist Shop, settled into the life he had long wanted, and prepared to enter the Nightmare Game again.

• Su Bai explored the institute's lower floors and found rows of cells holding starving, critically ill mutants.
• With Little Fire, Su Bai treated more than thirty mutants, giving them a chance to survive and strengthening their bodies.
• Su Bai sent A Xi to tell Qin Ge what he was doing, then left the institute before Qin Ge and his team could meet him.
• Su Bai returned to the Mist Shop and spent several days running it while selling goods on Commercial Street.
• Su Bai decided to use the shop as his off-campus residence, since Lin Wan could not bear to leave their old house and he disliked communal living.
• After spending time at the shop and occasionally treating mutants at Qin Ge's Base, Su Bai prepared to enter the Nightmare Game again.

Su Bai entered a Nightmare Game set at Blood Moon Lake Villa, where he had to audition for director #￥%%'s new show. The two-day audition would determine whether the players cleared the game, and Su Bai began exploring the foggy lakeside area with a script in hand.

• The Administrator announced that Blood Moon Lake Villa would host director #￥%%'s new show and called for auditioning actors.
• Su Bai considered whether Blood Moon in the Nightmare World corresponded to a lake in Qingliu City before entering the game.
• The Administrator explained that the audition would last two days, and players would clear or fail together depending on the director's judgment, though standout actors could earn immunity.
• The Administrator warned that the White Faction was weak, and Su Bai reflected on the future war between humans and Strange Creatures.
• Su Bai arrived in dense fog near water, found a thin booklet in his hand, and walked toward a light he spotted.

Su Bai reached a villa by Blood Moon Lake and met Huo Lang, a friendly player from Qingliu City. They entered the grounds to begin a two-day mission and saw that other players had already arrived.

• Su Bai followed a light up the flower-lined slope from Blood Moon Lake to a villa.
• Huo Lang emerged from the fog, recognized Su Bai as someone he had not seen before, and introduced himself.
• Huo Lang explained that he knew many Qingliu City players through the Player Forum and their chat group.
• Su Bai told Huo Lang that he had recently moved to Qingliu City, and they agreed to enter the villa and start acting for the mission.
• Huo Lang opened the gate, and he and Su Bai saw the villa’s large garden and figures moving inside.

Su Bai and Huo Lang entered the villa at Blood Moon Lake and found several players Su Bai already knew, turning the unfamiliar gathering into something like a reunion. The chapter ended with Su Bai recognizing the powerful Lord Ghost Shaman among the players.

• Huo Lang and Su Bai walked to the villa and entered after hearing voices inside fall silent.
• Huo Lang greeted the players in the hall and remarked that he knew most players in the game.
• Su Bai recognized Lian Xiangyu, a female player from the Lorimas Grand Hotel, and Feng Ling among the group.
• Su Bai noticed a cloaked figure with doll-like hands and suspected it was Lord Ghost Shaman playing as a player.

Huo Lang joined the Players in the villa and met Ning Yi, Lian Xiangyu, Shen Dong'er, and Wu Heng as they reviewed their roles in the audition game. Ning Yi explained the romance plot, but the group had yet to learn when the audition would begin or what awaited them.

• Ning Yi greeted Huo Lang and explained that she was playing the female lead while he had drawn the butler role.
• Ning Yi said the Players’ roles and scripts depended on when they entered the villa, and the audition was set for eight, though the time of day was unclear.
• Lian Xiangyu introduced himself nervously, while Huo Lang failed to recognize him as the powerful Player from the rankings.
• Huo Lang read the drama’s title, and Ning Yi explained that Lian Xiangyu played a young master who lost his memory and fell for her after she rescued him.
• Ning Yi identified Shen Dong'er as Lian Xiangyu’s original fiancée and Wu Heng as his father, leaving Su Bai stunned by the assigned roles.

Ning Yi explained the melodramatic audition script and the roles assigned to the players as they prepared to act out a story at the villa. The clock chimed, officially beginning the game.

• Ning Yi described how Lian Xiangyu brought her to the villa, planned to break his engagement to Shen Dong'er, and later married her while Shen Dong'er went to prison.
• Huo Lang noted that his role as the butler was to stay by the Master's side and occasionally support the leads.
• Su Bai revealed that he was the villa's gardener, whose role was to decorate with flowers and be helped by the female lead.
• Shen Dong'er complained about playing a lovesick woman and questioned why her character would cling to Lian Xiangyu.
• Huo Lang reminded the players to keep their characters' emotions separate from their own and focus on clearing the audition.
• The wall clock chimed, and the game officially began.