Chapter Summaries

Lynn faced the Five Gates trial, which tested his self-control with seductive illusions, aphrodisiac mist, and succubi. As his self-control began to fall, the examiner cut the feed after the succubi’s charm started affecting the observers too.

• Lynn appeared fixed in a chair and received the Five Gates quest, which required him to endure for 30 minutes before his self-control collapsed.
• A blonde woman tried to seduce Lynn, but he recognized the illusion and shut his eyes to resist.
• The chief examiner told the candidates that failing the temptation trial could let the illusions drain and devour them, while the vampire wondered what handsome men might do to her.
• Pink mist lowered Lynn’s self-control, and several succubi emerged and began charming him.
• The succubi’s charm affected the observers, so the chief examiner cut the feed and explained that their minds had been influenced.

Lynn resisted the succubi’s temptations by transforming with Flesh Cataclysm and killing the illusions, but the trial’s final assault brought forth figures close to his heart. With two minutes left, the doll girls from Madam Doll’s handbook appeared, leaving his self-control under severe pressure.

• The pink mist and succubi nearly overwhelmed Lynn, and even Zuo Zuo admitted she felt strange while being tempted.
• Lynn used Flesh Cataclysm to become a flesh monster and kill the succubi as soon as they appeared.
• With five minutes remaining, Lynn stopped his tendrils when Xiao Xiao appeared and pleaded with him not to kill her.
• Blood Cloak appeared and weakened Lynn’s self-control by reminding him of their past intimacy.
• Aunt Doll and Alice appeared, and then the doll girls from Madam Doll’s handbook emerged as Lynn faced the final two minutes of the trial.

Lynn passed the first trial in the Illusion Room by resisting its seductive projections and unlocking the exit door. He then appeared in a classroom for the second trial, where a ghost would kill students as he searched for the key.

• The Illusion Room overwhelmed Lynn with girls trying to hold him back, but he crawled to the door and turned the key before the time limit ended.
• The chief examiner and trainees watched Lynn pass the first trial and learned that the Illusion Room had shaped its temptations from his desires.
• Lynn appeared in a classroom, where he was pinned to a chair among motionless students.
• A system notification announced that the second trial tested Lynn's tolerance for fear and powers of observation.
• A notebook revealed that Lynn had thirty minutes to find the key while a ghost killed one student each minute and would come for him after ten deaths.

Lynn began the second trial in a classroom where a ghost killed a student every minute, and he searched for clues to find his key and escape. Notes and injuries suggested he was a bullied student who had summoned the ghost by promising it his life.

• Lynn realized he had ten minutes before the ghost would target him and began searching the classroom for his key.
• When Lynn opened his pencil case, the students turned to stare at him, and the first minute ended with a student’s severed head on the desk.
• Lynn found a dead rat and notes describing torment and endurance, then suspected his role might be the vengeful ghost.
• After the second minute, Lynn found another student killed with knives and discovered a note saying the student could no longer endure the bullying.
• Lynn read the note’s final message: the student had promised the summoned ghost his life.

Lynn pieced together how the bullied student’s classmates and teacher had wronged him, while a ghost reenacted the student’s revenge by killing the bullies. The chapter ended with the ghost killing two more students after only ten seconds, as the bloody words “No way!” appeared on the blackboard.

• Lynn inferred that the character he was playing had been bullied and had made a pact with a ghost to take revenge on his classmates.
• Lynn approached the teacher and saw that she had no eyes or ears, while bloody writing on the blackboard said, “She said I was in the wrong.”
• Lynn witnessed the students cornering the bullied character in the glass’s reflection, and the ghost killed one of them by smashing his head.
• Lynn found bloodstained gauze wrapped around his head with the words “I hesitated” written on it.
• The lights went out again less than ten seconds later, and the ghost pinned two students to the back blackboard with their own hand bones.

Lynn realized that a girl’s kindness might have made the bullied boy hesitate over his revenge, and he searched the classroom for her. He found her photograph and diary, which revealed her compassion for him as the ghost’s violence escalated.

• Lynn interpreted the gauze as a symbol of the care that had once made the bullied boy reconsider his revenge.
• Lynn searched the classroom for a kind girl but found only hollow, deathly students and an empty seat by the window.
• After two more students were killed and the word “Die” appeared in blood, Lynn opened the empty desk and found a girl’s photograph.
• Lynn pried open the locked drawer and found the girl’s diary, which described classmates bullying Wang Tao because his mother had been a spirit medium.
• The diary recounted how the girl helped Wang Tao after finding him injured, then witnessed his classmates dragging him into a bathroom and resolved to tell the teacher.

Lynn read Wang Siyue’s diary and learned how Wang Tao’s classmates bullied him, how he began killing them, and how Wang Siyue tried to stop him. The diary ended with a newspaper clipping reporting Wang Siyue’s murder beneath a bridge.

• After Lynn read that Wang Siyue had been hospitalized, darkness fell over the classroom and three more students were killed, bringing the death toll to ten.
• Wang Siyue wrote that bullying and rumors continued after she returned to school, while two of Wang Tao’s classmates were murdered.
• Wang Siyue found Wang Tao being beaten in the woods, struck one of his attackers with a stick, and watched Wang Tao stab another.
• Wang Tao told Wang Siyue he had killed the two classmates and vowed to kill the bullies who had threatened to rape her.
• Wang Siyue planned to find Wang Tao the next day, but her diary ended with a clipping reporting that she had been found stabbed to death beneath a bridge.

Lynn investigated the classroom massacre and pieced together how the ghost might have manipulated the boy into seeking revenge. As the darkness returned, the ghost came up behind him and said, “I found you.”

• Lynn saw that the girl had died and suspected her death had triggered the boy’s massacre.
• When the lights returned, Lynn found four students beheaded and discovered that he was covered in blood.
• Lynn found a scorched newspaper reporting a school fire that killed thirty-two people and led him to suspect the girl’s body was the key to the trial.
• Lynn theorized that the ghost had killed the girl to fuel the boy’s hatred and use him as a source of nourishment.
• During another blackout, Lynn heard the teacher being killed and felt someone standing back-to-back with him before the ghost said, “I found you.”

Lynn realized the ghost had been hiding on the back of his head and attacked it after exposing its face. The ghost survived his supernatural attacks and continued to regenerate, leaving Lynn trapped in the Illusion Room.

• Lynn noticed the ghost attacked victims who were behind him and concluded it was hiding on the back of his head.
• Lynn found bloody eyes covering his back and a human face beneath the hair at the back of his head.
• When the classroom darkened, Lynn used his Witcher Revolver and Evil Spirit Vertical Eye to attack the ghost.
• Lynn cut the ghost in two with his Night Demon Blade, but it split into two figures and then became countless faces.
• Lynn used Calamity to pin the faces to the walls, but realized his supernatural powers could not kill the ghost or free him from the Illusion Room.

As the classroom burned and the clock advanced, Lynn realized the blood-written rules were clues left by the boy’s mother and uncovered her Medium’s Notebook. He learned that she had contacted the Dark World and planned to trap a Vengeful Demon in an endless loop using a heart anchor, then looked to the clock for the method.

• Lynn realized the classroom’s destruction was accelerating toward its end and concluded that force would not defeat the ghost.
• Lynn matched the blood-red eye drawing to a torn page in the notebook, revealing its title as Medium’s Notebook.
• Lynn read his mother’s account of crossing the Dead Realm, attracting an evil presence, and writing an invocation she could not destroy.
• Lynn discovered his mother’s plan to use a heart anchor to trap the being in an endless loop and recognized the boy had instead summoned the Vengeful Demon.
• Lynn connected the Dead Realm to the Dark World and raised his gaze to the clock, searching for his mother’s method.

Lynn realized his mother’s heart anchor had trapped the Vengeful Demon in a time loop and uncovered the truth about Wang Tao and the girl’s death. He found that Wang Tao’s refusal to face her death was the anchor that could let him break the loop.

• Lynn realized the classroom deaths were repeating in a time loop created by his mother’s heart anchor.
• Lynn confronted the Ghost Infant and reasoned that the demon had hidden the girl’s body inside his character’s stomach to torment him.
• Lynn pulled the girl’s decayed corpse from his stomach and accused the ghost of showing it to Wang Tao after making him kill the others.
• Lynn identified the face on the back of his head as Wang Tao, who had trapped himself in the past because he could not accept the girl’s death.
• Lynn understood that the girl’s kindness had become Wang Tao’s heart anchor, and that Wang Tao’s fixation was the key to escaping the loop.

Lynn obtained the key in the Illusion Room but refused to leave the trapped souls to their unchanging script, using Lingering Memory of the Past on Wang Tao and the girl. As the projection went dark and the chief examiner worried Lynn would fail the time limit, a high-ranking Night Doctor arrived asking which trainee was taking the assessment.

• Lynn found the golden key on the girl's corpse after the classroom froze, then questioned whether the stage's script could be changed.
• Lynn returned to Wang Tao, apologized for the tragedy, and clasped his hand, triggering a dazzling white light.
• Lynn activated Lingering Memory of the Past on Wang Tao and the girl, determined to try to help even if the ending could not change.
• The chief examiner shut off the projection and worried Lynn would run out of time and fail the assessment.
• Raven saw a Night Doctor bearing eight merit crosses enter the Trial Hall, and the man asked which trainee was being assessed.

Lynn emerged from the Illusion Room after using Lingering Memory of the Past to revisit his school days. An Eight-Rank Veteran arrived to watch his assessment, and Lynn found himself back in a peaceful classroom, where the familiar girl thanked him.

• Guide learned that an Eight-Rank Veteran had arrived and brought him into the Trial Hall.
• The Eight-Rank Veteran asked to see Number 4, codename Good Doctor, and watched the Illusion Room’s white light recede.
• Lynn woke in a sunlit classroom and realized he had returned to a scene from his past.
• Lynn saw the familiar girl by the window, and she thanked him.

Lynn met Wang Tao in a memory of his past, where Wang Tao thanked him for letting him revisit it. Wang Tao revealed how a Night Doctor saved him from the Devil’s time loop, and Lynn left encouraged by Wang Tao’s belief that he had already surpassed most people.

• Wang Tao told Lynn that the classroom scene was a memory he treasured and thanked him for letting him return to it.
• Wang Tao explained that Lynn could not change the scenario, but had shown how deeply he wanted to make up for Wang Tao’s regrets.
• Outside the scenario, the Chief Examiner and others recognized that Wang Tao’s face matched the Eight-Rank Veteran watching the screen.
• Wang Tao told Lynn that he had been trapped in a time loop with the Devil until a Night Doctor from the City of Night tried to break the curse and save him.
• Wang Tao recalled that the Night Doctor died saving him, and said he eventually understood the doctor had simply acted on what he believed was right.
• Lynn said he was trying to follow the same path, and Wang Tao bumped fists with him and said he had already surpassed most people.

Lynn comforted Wang Tao about his past, then urged him to pursue the girl he still loved, embarrassing Wang Tao and the Eight-Rank Veteran watching from outside. The chapter ended with Lynn offering to explain his teacher’s “deep penetration” story.

• Wang Tao said he had sent the girl back to Blue Star and hoped she could be happy in her new life.
• Lynn startled the onlookers by smacking Wang Tao’s head, though the Eight-Rank Veteran said the boy was only his imprint.
• Lynn told Wang Tao to approach the girl and pursue a relationship instead of admiring her from afar.
• Wang Tao denied being in love, but Lynn argued that the girl remained in his happiest memories and that he could not honestly forget her.
• Lynn continued pressing Wang Tao to imagine a life with the girl, then leaned closer and offered to tell him his teacher’s story of deep penetration.

Lynn pushed Wang Tao to confront Wang Siyue and used his voice to force him to confess. Wang Siyue offered to start as friends, and Wang Tao shyly introduced himself to her.

• Lynn urged Wang Tao to approach Wang Siyue and face his feelings.
• When Wang Tao froze beside her, Lynn imitated his voice and shouted a confession to Wang Siyue.
• Wang Tao tried to explain that someone had imitated his voice while Lynn watched from across the classroom.
• Wang Siyue laughed and offered to become friends with Wang Tao.
• Wang Tao took her hand and introduced himself as Wang Tao.

Lynn rushed out of the assessment scenario, believing he had failed after staying to help, and discovered that the Night Doctor he had helped was White Night, the real Wang Tao. White Night explained that Lynn had triggered a hidden ending by choosing compassion over completing the assessment, though Lynn still wondered whether he had passed.

• Lynn left the classroom more than twenty minutes past the assessment limit and asked the Chief Examiner if he could continue.
• White Night removed his mask, greeted Lynn, and confirmed that he was Wang Tao in reality.
• White Night explained that the Illusion Room scenario was based on his past and tested candidates' hearts as well as their abilities.
• White Night said Lynn triggered the hidden ending by staying to help after the countdown, rather than leaving with the key.

Lynn was promoted directly to Official Night Doctor and went to meet the Matriarch, while he teased White Night about his first love. The chapter ended with Lynn entering the Matriarch’s hall and sensing her immense Root-Level aura.

• White Night promoted Lynn to Official Night Doctor after he triggered a special ending in the assessment.
• White Night led Lynn through the City of Night to meet the Matriarch, and Lynn repeatedly urged him to pursue his first love.
• White Night showed a scorched photograph of the girl, and Lynn’s system issued a quest to bring White Night and the target girl together.
• A servant told the Matriarch that Lynn had arrived and might be the suspected Plague Doctor Raven had mentioned.
• The Matriarch ordered Lynn brought in, and Lynn entered the hall and sensed a powerful Root-Level aura.

Lynn met the Matriarch of the Night Doctors, who examined him and discovered his Titan Tribe engagement mark. After Lynn’s tangled connections to Xiao Xiao’s family nearly convinced her he was lying, he proved his claim with Xiao Xiao’s broken baby tooth, and the Matriarch revealed she was her dead father’s first love.

• Lynn introduced himself to the Matriarch and began her examination, but she stopped him when he started taking off his clothes.
• The Matriarch’s holy light restored Lynn and revealed a Titan Tribe soul-contract rune on his forehead.
• Lynn explained that he was engaged to Xiao Xiao, a young Titan, and described the family connections linking her to his sworn big brother and the Witch God.
• The Matriarch doubted Lynn’s story and turned the examination light cold as her murderous intent rose.
• Lynn showed the Matriarch half of Xiao Xiao’s broken baby tooth, easing her suspicion.
• The Matriarch told Lynn that she was Xiao Xiao’s dead father’s first love.

Lynn met the Night Doctor organization’s Matriarch and discovered that she was a cursed Twelve-Winged angel with a history involving Titan. After hearing how Lynn had met Titan’s family and weakened Titan’s curse, she regarded Lynn with growing uncertainty.

• The Matriarch told Lynn she had been Titan’s first love and summoned him into the darkness.
• Lynn found the Matriarch bound and pierced by chains, recorded her in his bestiary, and received 17 free attribute points.
• The Matriarch warned Lynn to answer honestly and asked how he knew Titan’s family and what condition they were in.
• Lynn recounted meeting Xiao Xiao, being targeted by the Demon Association, and encountering Xiao Xiao’s parents.
• Lynn said he had weakened Titan’s curse by 15%, nearly killing himself, and the Matriarch scrutinized him in disbelief.