Chapter Summaries

Lynn watched the Night Doctors perform curse-suppression surgeries, then began operating on an anesthetized patient who was secretly their director. The chapter left the director in agony as Lynn carved into his back under the Night Doctors’ guidance, while they still failed to recognize him.

• The Night Doctors finished operating on their curse-afflicted patients and offered to guide Lynn through his first surgery.
• Lynn covered the old man’s head and lower body, extended metal spikes from his fingers, and prepared to operate.
• The anesthetized director recognized Lynn as the Apprentice Night Doctor and tried in vain to make the Night Doctors realize who he was.
• The Night Doctors mistook the director’s back for someone else’s and joked that the director would lose it if he knew they were operating on him.
• Lynn carved into the director’s back, causing him intense pain, while the Night Doctors advised him on correcting the surgical pattern.

Lynn accidentally anesthetized and began operating on his direct superior, Director Cola, while working with the Night Doctors. After being reprimanded, he learned that conflict had erupted on the western frontier, but the Upside-Down Angel told him to remain in Dark Night City and continue his internship in a quieter department.

• A Night Doctor brought Director Cola's lost documents to the hall, prompting Lynn to recognize the anesthetized man he was operating on as Cola.
• The Night Doctors discovered that Lynn had tied up and begun surgery on their director, then rushed to give Cola an antidote.
• Hours later, the Upside-Down Angel reprimanded Lynn for the incident and told him Cola had written a lengthy denunciation.
• The Upside-Down Angel told Lynn that the Colossus's creation had been unearthed and that the Mechanical Church and Flesh God Cult were fighting on the western frontier.
• The Upside-Down Angel said Lynn would stay in Dark Night City for a few more days and had been reassigned to a quiet department.

Lynn began his night shift at the Abnormal Creature Clinic and met Miao Miao, a doggirl who believes she is a cat. His diagnosis revealed that she suffered from severe cynophobia, and he asked her to explain her symptoms.

• Lynn found a note explaining that he would work twelve-hour night shifts treating the clinic’s abnormal regulars.
• Miao Miao arrived for treatment, and Lynn learned from her panel that she was a dog who believed herself to be a cat.
• Lynn’s Random Diagnosis identified Miao Miao’s illness as severe cynophobia, a fear of dogs and anything related to them.
• Miao Miao trembled when Lynn named her condition, and he asked her to describe what was troubling her.

Lynn discovered that Miao Miao was a dangerous anomalous creature whose treatment rules forbade her from seeing her reflection and warned that prolonged contact caused feline behavioral changes. After Miao Miao looked into a box of hidden mirrors, she realized she was a dog, leaving Lynn facing the consequences of the revelation.

• Miao Miao showed Lynn a family photo of her adoptive family, whose members all had cat faces, and insisted that she was a kitty afraid of cats’ natural enemies.
• Lynn found that every mirror in the hospital had been hidden, then searched the medical records for Miao Miao’s file.
• The file identified Miao Miao as extremely dangerous and warned that seeing her appearance could trigger a large-scale anomaly, while contact caused people to develop feline traits.
• Lynn diagnosed himself and discovered that he had already acquired Feline Behavioral Abnormality after speaking with Miao Miao.
• Lynn returned to find Miao Miao missing, then found her looking into the open box of mirrors as a quest to cure her appeared.
• Miao Miao turned to Lynn in tears and said that she was a dog.

Miao Miao’s belief that she was a dog triggered an abnormal curse outbreak, transforming Lynn into a cat and reshaping the clinic around them. Lynn fled into a room and read the file’s earlier outbreak records to learn what had caused the curse.

• Lynn tried to reassure Miao Miao that she was a cat, but she rejected his salted fish and insisted she was a dog.
• Miao Miao’s sanity reached rock bottom, unleashing a curse that transformed Lynn into a cat and altered the storeroom and lobby.
• Lynn grabbed the file and fled as Miao Miao’s uncontrolled cries spread the curse through the clinic.
• Zuo Zuo startled Lynn by taking control of his left paw, and he escaped into a room with her.
• Lynn put on the Plague Doctor Mask and read records showing that reflections and shiny metal buttons had triggered Miao Miao’s previous outbreaks.

Lynn learned from Aier’s file that [002·8] could restrain Miao Miao, while prolonged contact with her caused irreversible feline changes. He tried to stop her rampage with a surprise attack, but her curse transformed him back into a cat midair and sent them both crashing to the floor.

• Lynn read Aier’s investigation records and learned that [002·8] could contain Miao Miao after her powers manifested.
• Lynn fled through the corridor as Miao Miao’s curse transformed the surroundings into cat shapes.
• Lynn used temporary curse removal to regain his human form and prepared to attack Miao Miao with Crow Takes Flight.
• Miao Miao saw Lynn’s tentacles and screamed, causing his cat-transformation curse to take effect again.
• Lynn crashed into Miao Miao, and the two tumbled across the floor as his curse stacks increased to four.

Lynn fled the enraged Miao Miao and hid in room 002, where he found a quill that made its writing come true. The quill trapped him in an increasingly soothing petting scene, while Lynn suspected the books on the shelves could be connected to 002·8.

• Miao Miao threw Lynn aside and chased him after his attempt to restrain her provoked her fury.
• Lynn used his speed to escape Miao Miao, picked the lock on room 002, and slipped inside.
• Lynn disturbed the quill writing on a book, and it wrote him into a scene where invisible hands petted him.
• The quill's writing calmed Lynn and lowered his sanity, while he wondered whether it could warp reality.
• Lynn suspected the books on the shelves might be linked to 002·8 as the quill wrote that he purred and begged the writer for attention.

Lynn obeyed the Feather Pen’s story-altering writing, escaped with a book that made readers drowsy, and hurried to find the rampaging dog-eared girl. He searched the dark corridor, unaware of a figure crawling above him, until it suddenly attacked.

• Lynn resisted the Feather Pen’s control by going along with its writing, but the pen shooed him away with dried fish whenever he tried to get close.
• Lynn found the book titled “A book that makes you drowsy if you read it” and stole it, triggering a quest to return it within two hours.
• Lynn chose to return the book to preserve the Feather Pen’s favorability, while prioritizing finding the dog-eared girl.
• Lynn failed to activate Evil Spirit Vertical Eye because his constitution points were too low, then searched the corridor for the girl.
• A figure crawled across the ceiling above Lynn and lunged at him with a piercing meow.

Lynn subdued Miao Miao by using the sleep-inducing book, then searched her belongings for clues to her abnormal condition. He discovered cursecraft patterns covering the family photos, leaving their significance unexplained.

• Miao Miao chased Lynn through the corridor, and he lured her into the candlelit hall.
• Lynn opened the sleep-inducing book, and its words made Miao Miao collapse into a deep sleep.
• Lynn shut and covered the book before its effects overwhelmed him, then searched Miao Miao's bag.
• Lynn examined Miao Miao's family photos and wondered why seeing herself in them had not triggered her abnormal condition.
• Lynn used the Plague Doctor Mask's Cursecraft view and saw a faint purple haze covering the photos.

Lynn linked his vision to Miao Miao’s and discovered that cursecraft had disguised the photographs’ true contents. He uncovered records of the family’s brutal Flesh Modification experiments, while Miao Miao, still asleep, murmured that she was waiting for her mother to return.

• Lynn connected his optic nerves to Miao Miao’s and saw the happy family portrait as she perceived it.
• Lynn used Lingering Memory of the Past on the photograph and revealed a horrific record of Flesh Modification performed on Miao Miao and her family.
• Lynn rewound the other photographs, exposing the family’s torture and the grotesque forms they had been changed into.
• Lynn recognized the Flesh Dominators’ symbol and read that Miao Miao’s reality-warping ability had emerged after extreme torment.
• Miao Miao murmured in her sleep that she wanted her mother to take her with her and that she had been waiting for her to come back.

Lynn used Self-Bound Angel's Mercy to wake Miao Miao and make her confront the memories hidden behind her photographs. As the photographs brought her family's brutal deaths and her own torment back to her, Lynn held her and tried to comfort her.

• Lynn used Curse Removal to return to human form and decided Miao Miao needed to face her forgotten past.
• Lynn gave Miao Miao Self-Bound Angel's Mercy, and she woke with no memory of what had happened.
• Miao Miao reached for the photographs, saw the bloody scenes, and began to remember her family's torture and death.
• Miao Miao screamed as the memories returned, seeing her mother, father, and brother mutilated and reliving her own suffering.
• Lynn gathered Miao Miao into his arms and reassured her as she remembered being trapped, in pain, and unable to put her mother back together.

Lynn held Miao Miao as her memories of torture and the deaths of her family returned. She recalled how her mother rescued her, fled with her, and left her hidden with an envelope, promising to return.

• Miao Miao panicked as her memories of being tortured and transformed flooded back, and Lynn held her while she clawed at him.
• Miao Miao remembered her mother finding her hungry beside a garbage bin and bringing her home as a kitten.
• Miao Miao recalled the executioners torturing her family and taking her father and big brother away to be killed.
• After Miao Miao awakened her reality-warping power, she woke to a burning facility and found her mother, who had been transformed into a doll.
• Miao Miao and her mother fled the facility as executioners pursued them and shot her mother.
• Miao Miao's mother hid her in a hollow tree, gave her an envelope, and told her to stay alive until she returned.

Miao Miao remembered waiting for her mother for centuries and broke down after Lynn told her that her mother was dead. Lynn used Lingering Memory of the Past and Mimicry to let her briefly reunite with an illusion of her mother, then received the special quest rewards.

• Miao Miao recalled hiding in a tree and waiting for her mother until centuries passed, then panicked and tried to return to the spot where she had been left.
• Lynn told Miao Miao that her mother had died and that she had been wandering for centuries, leaving her devastated.
• Lynn encouraged Miao Miao to keep living and suggested her family might still be alive and could be found.
• Lynn used Lingering Memory of the Past and Mimicry to transform Miao Miao into a little cat and let her embrace an illusion of her mother.
• Miao Miao sobbed in her mother's arms as Lynn recognized the reunion as a comforting deception, and he received the special quest rewards.

Lynn sought help from the City of Night for Miao Miao’s request to find her mother, hoping the kindness of others would give her hope. When Miao Miao woke and found him gone, she gathered her keepsakes and wrote him a farewell letter before returning to wait for her mother.

• Lynn entered the Vision Realm and posted Miao Miao’s story and photographs in the Region Channel, asking the City of Night to help find her mother.
• After Lynn left the Vision Realm, lights began appearing in his private channel.
• Miao Miao woke in the hospital lobby and found that Lynn and the woman who resembled her mother were gone, but she still remembered the past.
• Miao Miao packed her mother’s keepsakes, decided to return and wait for her, and wrote Lynn a letter thanking him and saying goodbye.

Miao Miao tried to leave the Hospital alone, but Lynn and a vast crowd of Night Doctors gathered to show her kindness and accept her request to find Mother and her family. Their support restored her hope, while Upside-Down Angel watched and recognized Lynn's effort as a kind of salvation.

• Miao Miao left the Hospital and walked through the dark streets, grieving that she might become a stray cat again.
• Lynn appeared with thousands of Night Doctors carrying lanterns and reminded Miao Miao that people in the City of Night would help her.
• Lynn asked Miao Miao whether she would let the Night Doctors accept her request, and Miao Miao tearfully asked them to help her find Mother and her family.
• The Night Doctors, including White Night, declared that they accepted Miao Miao's request.
• Upside-Down Angel watched the gathering and recalled how Lynn had spent the night visiting Night Doctors to bring hope to Miao Miao.

The Upside-Down Angel defended Lynn’s character to the Nine-Character Meritorious Figures, while Lynn helped Miao Miao settle into Dark Night City and promised to find a way to change her appearance. Miao Miao chose to drink a potion that would turn her into a catgirl, and Lynn began brewing it in the Hospital’s potion-making room.

• The Upside-Down Angel told the Nine-Character Meritorious Figures that Lynn’s compassion and ability to suppress her curse made him worthy of their trust, then warned them to watch the Plague Doctors and the Flesh Dominator.
• Sir Awen stayed behind after the meeting and told the Upside-Down Angel he had discoveries concerning Mr. Good Doctor.
• Lynn reassured Miao Miao that Dark Night City was her home and that the Night Doctors would help find her mother.
• Miao Miao told Lynn she wanted to look like a person, and Lynn suggested a potion as an alternative to surgery.
• After reading the potion formula, Miao Miao insisted on drinking it, and Lynn began preparing it in the Hospital’s potion-making room.

Lynn brewed a Catgirl Potion using the Matriarch’s tea bag and gave it to Miao Miao, who faced the monstrous form beneath her canine disguise. Meanwhile, the Turtle King delivered a package to Lynn at the Punk Hotel.

• Lynn secretly added the Matriarch’s tea bag to his potion and brewed a batch of Catgirl Potions with Miao Miao’s help.
• Lynn gave Miao Miao a bottle of potion, and she drank it, thanking him for his kindness and calling him her most precious treasure.
• After Lynn left her to sleep, Miao Miao tore open her canine hide and faced her twisted reflection.
• The Turtle King crashed into Lynn’s bedroom at the Punk Hotel and announced that his delivery had arrived.

Lynn received the Seventh Doll, Black String Moon, from Doll Manor and eagerly opened her suitcase. Madam Doll’s letter said String Moon would protect him for thirty days, challenged him to help develop her emotions, and warned him that the Dark World was growing dangerous.

• The Turtle King arrived with Lynn’s package and revealed he was the courier who had delivered a letter to Lynn’s master.
• Lynn paid the Turtle King and prepared himself carefully before opening the package from Doll Manor.
• Lynn opened the suitcase and found Black String Moon, a dormant Gothic-dressed Curse Doll with formidable combat abilities.
• Lynn read Madam Doll’s letter, which said Black String Moon would protect him for thirty days and promised another doll if he helped her become more human.
• Madam Doll warned Lynn that the Mechanical Church and the Flesh God Cult were at war and that his teacher had left Wandering Soul Alley.

Lynn activated Black String Moon, Madam Doll’s seventh adopted daughter, and learned that she had been contracted to protect him for thirty days. After discovering the controller’s third button reduced her favorability each time he pressed it, Lynn was left confused by its purpose.

• Lynn activated Black String Moon with the controller, and she established a thirty-day employment contract to protect him.
• Black String Moon concealed herself in the room and asked Lynn to provide books.
• Lynn found her manual, employment agreement, and winding keys, then learned that a key fit a socket on her back to recharge her.
• Black String Moon explained that the controller could put her into dormancy or immobilize her, but she did not know what its third button did.
• Lynn repeatedly pressed the third button and received notices that Black String Moon's favorability toward him had dropped by one each time.

Lynn discovered that the third button on Black String Moon’s remote let him confirm her presence and summon a reply, though each press lowered her affection. While he slept at the hotel, a blood-mist attacker sent insects to kill him, triggering an emergency quest to escape alive.

• Lynn pressed the third button repeatedly and learned it triggered a psychic-sensitivity test and made Black String Moon respond, while lowering her affection.
• Madam Doll watched the button’s sensor and hoped Lynn’s repeated presses would stir her daughter’s emotions.
• Lynn used the button to confirm Black String Moon was guarding him, then went to sleep at the hotel.
• A blood-red mist filled the hotel corridor as a masked attacker ordered insects to kill Lynn and take his brain.
• Lynn woke when the system triggered the emergency quest Malicious Peering, requiring him to leave the hotel alive.