Chapter Summaries

Su Bai watched the Director simulate futures in which humanity fought the Red Moon Society, but every outcome ended in catastrophe. As he continued toward the next door, the Administrator challenged the Director, whose furious response revealed its desperate search for a better ending.

• The Director showed Su Bai a simulation in which his death unleashed the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle and burned the Human-Faced Forest.
• Su Bai chose to continue through the door despite Wu Heng warning him that he could stop.
• The Director simulated humanity fighting the Red Moon Society alone and losing, then a second battle with Su Bai's help that also ended in humanity's collapse.
• The Director simulated the Opposition Faction joining the war and destroying the Red Moon Society, but humanity was nearly annihilated.
• The Administrator suggested another possibility, and the Director angrily insisted that it could still find one.

Su Bai met the Administrator and the Director in a dark space, where the Administrator appeared as a silver-haired merman suspended in Blood Threads. The Administrator told Su Bai that the best way to change the simulated futures was to stop more humans from entering this world.

• The Administrator told the Director that he had rejected simulated futures that the Administrator wanted.
• Mr. Fish said he no longer wanted to be alone, and Su Bai's surroundings shifted to a pitch-black space.
• Su Bai saw the silver-haired merman bound in Blood Threads and recognized him as the Administrator.
• Wu Heng appeared beside Su Bai after the Puzzle Piece gave its routine report.
• The Administrator told Su Bai that the most effective way to change the simulated futures was to prevent more humans from entering the world.

Mr. Fish began a plan to give humanity a chance to resist the Strange Creatures, asking human Players to choose whether to leave or fight. As the announcement’s countdown began, he accepted that the plan would cost him his life and asked the Director to show him the coast one last time.

• An announcement warned that the nightmare game would soon shut down and invited all human Players to leave the world beneath the Red Moon or stay and fight.
• Mr. Fish told Su Bai that meeting him and observing humans had given him a purpose: to do something for his fallen people.
• Mr. Fish told the Director, Mr. Xu, that the plan had begun and asked to see the coast before his remaining time ran out.
• The Director changed the scene from the black space to a peaceful coast with a sunset, sea breeze, waves, birdsong, and distant laughter.

Su Bai and the others brought Mr. Fish to a recreated vision of the merfolk homeland, where he chose to spend his final moments. The severed limbs released him, and he fell onto the beach beneath the sunset.

• Su Bai admired the Director's lifelike recreation of the merfolk homeland, with Wu Heng confirming it showed the place before civilization collapsed.
• Mr. Fish thanked Mr. Xu and gazed at the ocean, eager to remember the scenery.
• Mr. Fish told the Director that his consciousness was already fading and that seeing his homeland was what he wanted.
• The Director accepted Mr. Fish's decision and stepped back as the merfolk smiled with peaceful resolve.
• The severed limbs holding Mr. Fish snapped, and he fell onto the silvery-white beach.

Su Bai left Mr. Director’s scene and found himself in an abandoned district beneath the red moon, where Wu Heng explained that the Nightmare Game had been suspended and the Mist Shop could now connect spaces and return people to reality. Su Bai realized the coming war would involve humans as well as the Opposition Faction and the Red Moon Society, and Wu Heng warned that Su Bai might be crucial to it.

• Mr. Director sent Su Bai out of the scene and knelt beside the silver merfolk as rain began to fall over the sea.
• Su Bai found himself in an abandoned district of the Nightmare World and sensed that the nearby strange creatures posed little threat to him.
• Wu Heng told Su Bai that the Mist Shop’s restrictions had lifted, time now flowed at the same rate as in the Real World, and Players could use its Rest Room to return.
• Wu Heng explained that the Mist Shop was a passage between spaces and that Su Bai was now its master, though it could not move tens of thousands of people quickly.
• Su Bai said humans would also fight in the coming war and that he had things he needed to do.
• Wu Heng warned Su Bai that he might be the most crucial puzzle piece in the war.

Su Bai recognized the street as part of Honghuai City and realized he was near the Nameless Society’s base in the Nightmare World. After an announcement offered players a choice between returning to the Real World or staying to fight, Nameless Society members chose to remain, and players who had been in unfinished nightmare games suddenly reappeared at the base.

• Su Bai recognized the street from Honghuai City and recalled that the nearby Nightmare Academy served as the Nameless Society’s base.
• The chapter described how the Nameless Society had fortified the academy, organized its rooms, and started growing food with supplies from the Mist Shop.
• The Administrator’s announcement offered players the choice to return temporarily to the Real World or stay and face the coming battle.
• Nameless Society members decided they would stay together rather than leave their companions behind.
• Feng Ling and the others saw members return from unfinished nightmare games after they chose to stay, and a familiar voice offered to explain what was happening.

Su Bai returned to the Nameless Society Base and explained the coming conflict with the Red Moon Society and the threat facing humanity. He urged the members to unite human forces and revealed how his rewind ability might help them survive, leaving them with the possibility of rapidly evolving their abilities through greater power.

• Su Bai returned to the Nameless Society Base, where Feng Ling and the other members questioned him about the Administrator's warning.
• Su Bai explained the experiment, the Red Moon Society, and the approaching war against the Strange Creatures.
• Su Bai asked the Nameless Society to find and unite the human players who had chosen to remain in the Nightmare World, with Feng Ling leading the effort.
• Su Bai revealed that his fixed point rewound time when he died and that his Puzzle Piece ability could make other beings rewind with him.
• Su Bai said the fixed point's creator could modify it and suggested that turning places or objects into puzzle pieces might evolve his ability.
• Su Bai told the members that enough power could make ability evolution happen quickly, despite their limited time to grow stronger.

Feng Ling and the Nameless Society chose to join the coming war against the Red Moon Society, trusting Su Bai to guide them. Su Bai revealed that he owned the Mist Shop and introduced Wu Heng as his lover before proposing to make the shop, the base, and everyone there part of his Puzzle Piece ability.

• Feng Ling chose to stay in the Nightmare World and fight, and the Nameless Society members showed their support for Su Bai's plan.
• Su Bai summoned the Mist Shop at the Nameless Society's base, and Feng Ling recognized him as its owner, Player Forum ID 888.
• Su Bai introduced Wu Heng as his lover and joked that the Mist Shop counted as a bride price.
• Su Bai told the Nameless Society that he planned to use Wu Heng's help to advance his Puzzle Piece ability and incorporate the shop, the base, and everyone there into the puzzle without harming or restricting them.

Su Bai opened the door to the Puzzle Piece world and asked its inhabitants to leave with him and fight to conquer a new world. With their agreement, he began transforming the Nameless Society base into a Puzzle Piece, though the change had only just begun.

• Feng Ling asked Su Bai to make him part of the Puzzle Piece before allowing the other Nameless Society members to join, and Su Bai agreed.
• Su Bai grasped the door handle, which had become the shaft of his familiar Scythe, and opened the door to the Puzzle Piece world.
• Su Bai invited the Puzzle Pieces to leave their worlds and join him in a war to conquer a new world, and they agreed.
• Wu Heng took Su Bai's hand as Su Bai's viewpoint rose above the Nameless Society base and revealed his own body as a small Puzzle Piece.
• Su Bai saw faint puzzle-piece edges form around the school grounds and turned his gaze toward the little Grocery Store.

Su Bai transformed the Nameless Society's base into a Puzzle Piece, then discovered that transforming the Mist Shop also required transforming Wu Heng's Fog Mountain. With help from the power stored in the Mist Shop and the Puzzle Pieces hidden within his own, Su Bai completed the transformation and felt the world change.

• Su Bai transformed the Nameless Society's base into a Puzzle Piece, but his power was rapidly drained when he tried to transform the Mist Shop.
• Wu Heng revealed that Fog Mountain was hidden within the Mist Shop and had to be transformed along with it.
• Su Bai used the power stored in the Mist Shop to resume the transformation, which had already reached a quarter of its progress.
• The Puzzle Pieces hidden within Su Bai offered their power through the Mist Shop, replenishing the energy in its glass jar.
• Su Bai completed the transformation, and a Puzzle Piece outline appeared around the Mist Shop as the world changed.

With Feng Ling’s permission, Su Bai began converting humans and territories into Puzzle Pieces as he and his allies prepared a way for the network and Fixed Point to protect them during the coming war. The Nameless Society joined willingly, and Su Bai turned next to the Opposition Faction’s territories, including Honghuai City and the Director’s Film Set.

• Su Bai explained that becoming a Puzzle Piece was reversible and that the Fixed Point might return fallen members to Fog Mountain by rewinding their bodies’ time.
• Su Xuan promised to modify the Fixed Point so it could rewind Puzzle Pieces after their deaths without rewinding the outside world.
• Feng Ling and the Nameless Society volunteered to become Puzzle Pieces after Su Bai explained the network and its possible benefits.
• Su Bai told everyone to remain at the base and grow stronger until the Fixed Point’s modifications were complete, after which they could seek out Players and wage guerrilla warfare.
• Su Bai took the Honghuai City key to begin adding Opposition Faction territories, including Honghuai City and the Director’s Film Set, to the network.

The Red Moon Society’s experiment collapsed when Fish destroyed the Umbilical Cord, causing its human test subjects to vanish from the Nightmare World. As the Society scrambled to restart the system, the Fixed Point they had planned to create had already become a newly risen sun among the Nightmare World’s Puzzle Pieces.

• The Red Moon Society chose to resist the Red Moon’s prophesied fall rather than accept destruction or abandon their world.
• The Society used humans from another world as test subjects, raising them in safe environments so they could develop powers and contain the Red Moon’s Power.
• The Umbilical Cord, which humans called the system, stopped working, and vast numbers of test subjects left the Nightmare World.
• The Society’s Strange Creatures discovered that Fish had torn apart the Umbilical Cord and retained a shred of consciousness.
• The Society ordered an immediate restart while the Fixed Point they had planned to create had already become a newly risen sun in the Nightmare World.

Su Bai expanded the Puzzle Piece domain while the Nameless Society led human players and Strange Creatures into battle against the Red Moon Society. With the allies growing stronger and able to travel between transformed territories, they set their sights on the Human-Faced Forest, where Su Bai planned to make it part of the Puzzle Piece.

• Su Xuan modified the coordinate Fixed Points, and the war began while Su Bai transformed Opposition Faction territories into Puzzle Pieces.
• The Nameless Society led human players into battle, and Puzzle Piece fighters returned from death stronger and more skilled.
• As the Puzzle Piece expanded, it empowered the rebel army and linked transformed territories through Honghuai City for near-instant travel.
• The allied humans and Eerie beings prepared to attack the Human-Faced Forest, the Red Moon Society's central base.
• Su Bai headed for the Human-Faced Forest, wondering what would happen if he turned it into a Puzzle Piece.

Su Bai and the Opposition Faction entered the Human-Faced Forest to reach the Red Moon Society’s laboratory and turn the forest into a Puzzle Piece. The Red Moon Society noticed its former allies had joined the Opposition Faction, and war broke out as one leader sensed events slipping beyond their control.

• Su Bai recalled that Mr. Fish had identified the Red Moon Society’s Base entrance in the deepest part of the Human-Faced Forest.
• Feng Ling and the alliance decided to explore the forest with the Puzzle Piece, and Su Bai and Wu Heng joined them.
• Su Bai realized the forest was draining their strength more slowly because he had stopped the Red Moon Society’s experiment.
• Su Bai quietly converted nearby areas while the Opposition Faction surrounded the forest and a team headed toward the laboratory entrance.
• The Red Moon Society noticed former neutral Strange Creatures had joined the Opposition Faction, and fighting erupted around the forest.
• A Red Moon Society leader stopped and sensed that something was slipping out of their control.

Su Bai forced the Human-Faced Forest into his Puzzle Piece Domain and severed the Red Moon Society’s connection to its laboratories. Outside the forest, the Society’s forces realized Fog Mountain’s Doll army had joined the Opposition Faction Alliance as the severing caused their high-ranking eerie beings to erupt in pain and uncontrolled power.

• Su Bai used the power of his Puzzle Piece Domain to force the hostile Human-Faced Forest into his puzzle.
• As the conversion neared completion, Su Bai severed the Red Moon Society’s connection to the forest’s aboveground and underground laboratories.
• The Red Moon Society’s forces faced the Opposition Faction Alliance outside the forest, with Blood Ghosts and other minions massed behind them.
• An army of Dolls emerged from the fog, leading the Society’s high-ranking eerie beings to realize Lord Ghost Shaman had sided with the Opposition Faction.
• The severed connection caused the Society’s high-ranking eerie beings to howl in pain and unleash power that destroyed nearby Dolls and Blood Ghosts.

Su Bai and the Opposition Faction fought the Red Moon Society as its leaders recruited Strange Creatures with deceptive claims about the Red Moon’s fall. After Su Bai and Wu Heng returned, they strengthened their forces with Fog Mountain and the Store, while the Director questioned whether Strange Creatures should be sent to other worlds; the chapter ended with him suggesting that Su Bai turn the Red Moon into a Puzzle Piece.

• Su Bai destroyed the Human-Faced Forest Puzzle Piece after finding the person they sought dead inside the Laboratory’s system.
• The Red Moon Society persuaded Strange Creatures and Remnants to join the battle by claiming the Opposition Faction was endangering the world’s last chance of survival.
• Su Bai and Wu Heng returned from the forest, and Su Bai summoned the Store and Fog Mountain to strengthen their allies against the Blood Ghosts.
• The Director told Su Bai that Wu Heng planned to open passages to other worlds, but warned that Strange Creatures could become dangerous invaders there.
• The Director asked Su Bai whether he had considered turning the Red Moon itself into a Puzzle Piece.

Su Bai saw the Red Moon Society lose ground after the Opposition Faction’s surprise attack and the destruction of its Laboratory. As high-tier fighters clashed at the battlefield’s center, Wu Heng and Su Bai helped the Opposition Faction hold back the Society and evacuate the blast zone.

• The Director vanished into the mist and erased several Red Moon Society creatures from the battlefield.
• Su Bai compared the smaller battle to the one in his previous life and began considering a bold move against the Red Moon.
• Red Moon Society fighters recognized the Opposition Faction’s returning members as evidence that it possessed a Fixed Point, but Wu Heng blocked their attempt to seize it.
• Wu Heng declared that he had found where he belonged, while Su Xuan and other Opposition Faction leaders joined him to confront the Society’s high-tier forces.
• A massive explosion erupted at the battlefield’s center, and Wu Heng’s fog held back the flames while Su Bai opened passages and led everyone out of danger.

After the Red Moon Society launched a war against the Opposition Faction Alliance, Su Bai secured his mother in the Mist Shop’s safe base and set out with Wu Heng to make the Red Moon part of the puzzle. As they imagined a future beyond the war, Wu Heng asked Su Bai to complete their Marriage Contract with a traditional ceremony, and Su Bai answered by recalling his vow to grow old with him.

• The Red Moon Society turned its remaining forces against the Opposition Faction Alliance after the destruction of its Laboratory and learned that the Alliance might possess a Fixed Point.
• Su Bai used the Mist Shop’s passage to bring Lin Wan into the Store, where she gradually became more alert and began recalling memories of Su Xuan while visiting Honghuai City.
• After arranging the rear base, Su Bai and Wu Heng set out to make the Red Moon part of the puzzle.
• Su Bai and Wu Heng discussed what they wanted to do after the war, including visiting a university and other worlds.
• Wu Heng showed Su Bai the red Marriage Contract and asked to hold the traditional ceremony once the war was over.
• Su Bai recalled the words he had heard on the Route 444 Bus: “To hold your hand, to grow old together.”