Recaps

Lu Mi entered a new instance at the Zidao Provincial Library with Roman, Zhong Zixian, and Cheng Cheng, where they discovered that time seemed frozen. The library’s screen finally advanced to 17:01 just as a monster appeared, leaving the players in danger.

• Lu Mi confirmed he could freely switch between human and cat forms, while Roman spent a sleepless night outside his door.
• Lu Mi entered the instance with Roman, Zhong Zixian, and Cheng Cheng and met veteran player Zhang Xuerong and a crowd of newcomers.
• Lu Mi and Zhong Zixian noticed that the library screen and Lu Mi’s Wristband remained stuck at 17:00.
• Zhang Xuerong announced that the screen had changed to 17:01, and players spotted a dark, sticky monster in the hall.

Lu Mi and the others fled a hall where a vortex-covered monster was devouring people, and they escaped through a hidden door to a rural courtyard. Lu Mi suspected the monster attacked when more than five people shared a place; after one newcomer refused to leave and was eaten, the group entered the house as night approached.

• A huge monster filled the hall, pulling people into its vortices while Lu Mi searched for a way out with Zhong Zixian.
• Cheng Cheng led Lu Mi and Zhong Zixian through a concealed door marked West Gate, and Roman and Zhang Xuerong followed them into a rural courtyard.
• Shi Caiwen and Yao Zhiye arrived with another player, and Lu Mi suspected that having more than five people in one place triggered the monster's attack.
• Shi Caiwen and Yao Zhiye left to find another refuge, but the remaining newcomer refused to go and the monster pulled him into a vortex.
• After the monster withdrew and the door vanished, Lu Mi and the others entered the house, where its vacant-eyed occupants stared at them.

Lu Mi and the others witnessed Jian Di clash with her family over her plan to leave and earn her own living, then spent the night in the family’s house as time shifted. The chapter left them waking to a growing argument next door as the temperature dropped.

• Lu Mi and his companions entered a house where Jian Di argued with her parents about leaving to earn her own tuition and living expenses.
• Zhang Xuerong spat into the father’s soup while he urged Jian Di to marry young, and Jian Di accused her parents of wanting to sell her for bride money to provide for Jian Ren.
• Time jumped from 18:40 to 22:55, and Lu Mi discovered that Zhang Xuerong had gone missing.
• Cheng Cheng said the south door appeared to show part of an enormous monster, while the group settled down to sleep in a room beyond the west door.
• Roman told Lu Mi that he lived in a poor village and that its beautiful starry sky felt beyond reach.
• Lu Mi felt the temperature drop, and a loud argument in the next room woke the others.

Lu Mi discovered that the nighttime argument next door was an eerie loop and entered the room to investigate the nearly burned-out candle. He fled from the corpse-like couple into a seemingly endless corridor, where a fork in the path appeared ahead.

• Lu Mi realized the neighbors were repeating the same argument while Cheng Cheng, Zhong Zixian, and Zhang Xuerong fell unconscious.
• Lu Mi and Roman found the neighbors sitting silently in darkness as their voices and the sounds of smashing dishes continued to play.
• Lu Mi entered the neighbors' room to investigate the candle, and the door behind him turned into a wall as the argument stopped.
• The corpse-like couple attacked Lu Mi, who grabbed the candle and escaped through another door into a long corridor.
• Lu Mi checked that it was 00:44 and ran from the pursuing corpses until a fork with two paths appeared.

Lu Mi escaped the West Gate’s separate space with Jian Di and reunited with Cheng Cheng and the other players in the lobby. Zhang Xuerong reported that ten players remained and proposed changing locations the next time time moved.

• Lu Mi urged Jian Di to reject her parents’ forced marriage and run, then followed her through the left-hand door while driving back her father with fire.
• Lu Mi returned to the lobby and realized the companions he had seen in the separate space were not real; Roman had helped him escape by telling him to trust his friends.
• Lu Mi reunited with Cheng Cheng, saw Roman tending Yao Zhiye’s scraped knee, and learned that Zhong Zixian was still making his way out.
• Zhong Zixian emerged from the West Gate, and Zhang Xuerong said only ten players remained after others were swallowed by vortexes in spaces holding more than five people.
• Zhang Xuerong explained that the North Gate and East Gate groups had escaped without danger, then proposed that the players switch locations when time started moving again.

Lu Mi’s group chose the North Gate after learning Jian Di was likely heading to its school, then raced through the Library as the monster returned. They arrived at a university and Lu Mi began asking students about Jian Di.

• Yang Xingzhou objected to switching locations, but Lu Mi explained that Jian Di’s progress could change the locations’ safety, and the groups settled on new assignments.
• Lu Mi discovered an invisible barrier and a warning that the upstairs area was unrelated to the instance, then noticed the Candle flicker as time resumed.
• Lu Mi warned everyone to enter their gates as the monster emerged from the South Gate, and he guided his group through the North Gate.
• Lu Mi’s group arrived at a university where students discussed Jian Di, and Lu Mi asked two girls whether the person they meant was named Jian Di.

Lu Mi and the others searched the West Gate House story for Jian Di, who had gone home for a blind date, then returned to the lobby after resting in a classroom. There, they found Tang Jia’s intact body hidden behind a bookshelf, and Lu Mi turned her over to reveal something horrifying on her back.

• Lu Mi and Roman followed Jian Di’s roommates and learned that a relative had taken Jian Di home for a blind date.
• Lu Mi and the others slept in a classroom, then found its door had become the Library’s North Gate when they woke.
• The group returned to the lobby, where Cheng Cheng reported that East Gate Hospital had been safe and Jian Di was nowhere to be found.
• Roman spotted Tang Jia’s body behind a bookshelf near the South Gate, and the group worried that the West Gate team had been wiped out.
• Lu Mi used a cane to turn Tang Jia over, revealing something on her back that horrified a newcomer.

Lu Mi forced Chen Mao to reveal what he knew about Jian Di and dragged him through the West Gate when time resumed. In the cold courtyard beyond the gate, Chen Mao began explaining what happened on the night of Jian Di’s blind date.

• A vortex appeared on Tang Jia’s back and swallowed Lu Mi’s cane, while the newcomer screamed.
• Chen Mao and two veteran players emerged from the West Gate, refusing to share what had happened there.
• Lu Mi struck Chen Mao with a vase and threatened him until Chen Mao revealed that Jian Di had refused a blind date and planned to attend graduate school.
• When time resumed and the crawling sound returned, Lu Mi forced Chen Mao into the West Gate as the vortex swallowed people in the hall.
• Lu Mi and Roman followed Chen Mao into the cold courtyard, where Chen Mao said the blind-date suitor had entered Jian Di’s room with a drugged handkerchief.

Lu Mi and his companions watched Jian Di’s family keep her imprisoned and destroy her graduate school admission letter so she would marry Wu De. Afterward, Lu Mi comforted Roman, who briefly shared his painful childhood memories.

• Wu De visited Jian Di’s parents, who confirmed she was pregnant and kept her locked in her room despite her protests.
• Jian Di’s mother restrained her as she tried to escape, while Lu Mi found he could not interfere with the Dungeon Instance’s storyline.
• Jian Di’s father tore up her graduate school admission letter and threw it into the pigsty, then lied to her that it had never arrived.
• White mist returned, and Chen Mao feared that something would happen that night.
• Roman told Lu Mi about his absent mother and his father’s death, and Lu Mi hugged him.

Lu Mi woke in an isolated space and fled into a corridor of shifting vortices while Wu De pursued him, trying to lure him back with a key. Exhausted but refusing the offer, Lu Mi reached the corridor’s light as Wu De fell behind.

• Lu Mi escaped a nightmare, found Chen Mao pale and Roman missing, and realized he was isolated again.
• Lu Mi discovered Wu De outside the storage-room door and escaped through the open window into a corridor of vortices.
• Lu Mi ran through the corridor as the vortices became countless watching eyes and voices urged him to return.
• Wu De chased Lu Mi and offered him a key, but Lu Mi rejected it and kept running.
• Lu Mi saw light at the end of the corridor as the candle flame in his hand stopped flickering.

Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng entered the dangerous South Gate to search for clues and encountered a bamboo grove with a suspiciously pink stream. Upstream, Cheng Cheng spotted a crouching figure and called out to Roman.

• Lu Mi and the others compared what they had found in their doors, learning that Jian Di had given birth to a daughter and Wu De still intended to keep her from returning to school.
• Lu Mi argued that the South Gate might hold crucial clues, and Cheng Cheng and Zhong Zixian agreed to help him investigate; Zhang Xuerong stayed behind with Zhong Zixian to manage the other doors.
• As the Candle burned out and the monster emerged, the other players hurried through the Passageways while Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng faced it in the Hall.
• Lu Mi transformed into a cat and dodged the monster's vortex attack as Cheng Cheng reached the hidden door; together they escaped through the South Gate Passageway.
• Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng found a bamboo grove and followed a faintly pink stream upstream, where Cheng Cheng spotted a crouching figure and called out to Roman.

Roman brought Lu Mi to a traditional wooden building to meet a woman, and Lu Mi fell asleep in the pavilion, haunted by a nightmare about Jin Bi. After Roman warned him that the game fed on players’ negative emotions, Lu Mi reunited with Shen Yiwen, whom he believed had died, and noticed she was missing her Wristband.

• Roman led Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng to a wooden building, where two girls refused to let them enter until the guest was free.
• While waiting in the pavilion, Lu Mi shifted into cat form and fell asleep, dreaming that Jin Bi blamed him for her death.
• Roman comforted Lu Mi and told him that the game drew power from players’ fear, horror, and regret, warning him that the system wanted him to believe what he saw.
• Cheng Cheng came out of the building with Shen Yiwen, whom Lu Mi had believed Jin Bi killed.
• Lu Mi hurried toward Shen Yiwen, then noticed her bare wrist and asked where her Wristband was.

Shen Yiwen reunited with Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng after spending more than ten years in the Zidao Provincial Library, where she researched the world and befriended its NPCs. She revealed the origins of the Divine Punishment Game and a diagram that might show how to reassemble the Heart of Hell, though major obstacles remained.

• Shen Yiwen explained how she escaped her player status by taking a voted-out ghost's Identity Card, removing her Wristband, and reaching the Zidao Provincial Library.
• Shen Yiwen told Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng that she had lived in the Library for more than ten years, befriended the NPCs, and studied restricted books about the Mother Goddess.
• Shen Yiwen gave Lu Mi a damaged parchment and an abridged translation describing how the Lord of Evil created the horror game after becoming the vessel for the shattered Heart of Hell.
• Shen Yiwen showed Lu Mi a diagram in the Mother Goddess's ancient script that appeared to explain how to fit the Heart of Hell's fragments together.
• Cheng Cheng celebrated the possibility of finding the fragments and solving the game's problem at its source, while Shen Yiwen cautioned that it would be difficult.

Lu Mi found Roman apparently dead, but Roman revived and revealed he had faked his death. Lu Mi negotiated with the Lord of Evil for five Dungeon Instances to repair the Heart of Hell, and Roman began explaining his actions that night.

• Shen Yiwen told Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng that she had found an ancient book about repairing the Heart of Hell, though its instructions remained undeciphered.
• Lu Mi learned Roman had gone toward the sunset and found him lying blood-soaked and motionless.
• A gigantic figure appeared, and Roman woke up, admitting he had created no illusions this time and had wanted Lu Mi to hold him.
• Lu Mi challenged the Lord of Evil to let them repair the Heart of Hell in exchange for releasing everyone and ending the game; the Lord granted them five Dungeon Instances and threatened them if they failed.
• Roman told Lu Mi he could not remove his mask, and that night he began explaining why he had acted as he did.

Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng followed the Mother Goddess to the Zidao Provincial Library, where they discovered a stopped clock that revealed scenes from Jian Di’s life. The chapter ended with them witnessing Jian Di trapped at home after childbirth, as Wu De and others insulted her and demanded she bear a son.

• Roman told Lu Mi he wanted him to know more about his past, and Lu Mi said he already trusted him.
• The Mother Goddess returned, and Shen Yiwen said she had agreed to let Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng go straight to turn the great clock while 2044 handled the Central Control Building.
• Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng followed the Mother Goddess to the Zidao Provincial Library and found a clock tower whose markings showed dates from Jian Di’s life.
• Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng approached a tiny vortex at the clock’s 199912 mark, which turned white and revealed Jian Di lying in bed beside her baby’s cradle.
• Lu Mi recognized Wu De’s voice insulting Jian Di and demanding that she have a son, and Jian Di’s face contorted.

Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng entered Jian Di’s past and stopped her from killing herself and her baby by helping her escape. After returning, they learned that the Mother Goddess sent swallowed players to a parallel world, and the South Gate awaited them as Shen Yiwen said goodbye.

• Jian Di approached her baby’s cradle with scissors, and Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng rewound the clock but could not turn it back far enough to change her circumstances.
• Lu Mi realized they could enter the past as participants, and he and Cheng Cheng went through the vortex into Jian Di’s room.
• Lu Mi persuaded Jian Di that her daughter could have a better future, while Cheng Cheng opened the window so Jian Di could escape with the baby.
• Jian Di cut her hair, borrowed Lu Mi’s jacket, and left to find work and raise her daughter.
• Lu Mi and Cheng Cheng returned to the present, where Zhong Zixian stood beside Shen Yiwen; Shen Yiwen explained that people swallowed by the Mother Goddess lived in a parallel world.
• The group reached the Bamboo Grove entrance, where the South Gate waited, and Shen Yiwen said goodbye.

Lu Mi and his companions left Shen Yiwen behind to decipher the Ancient Text, then escaped the Library Dungeon Instance. Outside, Lu Mi noticed the keys in Shen Yiwen’s Canvas Bag were glowing and wondered if they were the fragments they needed.

• Shen Yiwen stayed behind to study the Ancient Text while Zhong Zixian, Lu Mi, Cheng Cheng, and Roman left, and Roman promised to visit her between Dungeon Instances.
• Shen Yiwen gave Lu Mi a Canvas Bag and said goodbye to the group at the South Gate.
• Lu Mi and the others returned to the Hall, where Shi Caiwen said Yao Zhiye was dead and that she intended to live well.
• Lu Mi and Roman exited the Library with the other survivors and reached the Public Rest Area.
• Roman pointed out that something in Lu Mi’s Canvas Bag was glowing, and Lu Mi realized the keys might be the fragments.

Lu Mi and his friends connected the keys from Dungeon Instances to a formation diagram and began gathering them to oppose the game. With Xuanxuan’s help, they collected fourteen keys, but Lu Mi still needed sixteen more before Roman’s state of undress interrupted their conversation.

• Lu Mi, Cheng Cheng, and Zhong Zixian studied the formation diagram and suspected its thirty symbols represented Dungeon Instances whose keys could open exits.
• Lu Mi and his friends tried to obtain keys from other players, but most were wary and refused to hand them over.
• Xuanxuan stopped a burly player from intimidating Lu Mi, and the man gave Lu Mi the key from Zheng Sinian’s Dungeon Instance.
• Xuanxuan organized players who had cleared Dungeon Instances with Lu Mi and persuaded them to contribute keys through discreet signals.
• Lu Mi counted fourteen keys and learned that Xuanxuan had urged everyone to bring keys back from future Dungeon Instances.
• Roman pushed Lu Mi’s rocking chair as Lu Mi thanked him for staying by his side, then Lu Mi noticed Roman’s exposed chest and waist and scolded him for not dressing properly.

Lu Mi and his companions decided to test Shen Yiwen’s uncertain translation by catching a ghost, and 2044 arranged another Human-Ghost Showdown for them. Lu Mi and Roman entered a new dungeon instance, where an elderly woman asked the players to find her missing granddaughter, Fanfan.

• Roman told Zhong Zixian that Shen Yiwen had translated the ancient text as requiring a human soul, though she was unsure of the wording.
• Zhong Zixian, Lu Mi, Cheng Cheng, and Roman decided to catch a ghost and try using its soul to repair the fragments.
• Lu Mi asked 2044 to arrange another Human-Ghost Showdown, and 2044 agreed while asking about Lu Mi’s previous dungeon instance.
• 2044 noted that Lu Mi was close to reaching 1,000 points, but Lu Mi said he and his companions wanted to free everyone from the game.
• Lu Mi and Roman entered a dungeon instance together, where an elderly woman asked the players to help find her missing granddaughter, Fanfan.

Lu Mi took a pocket watch from an old woman who claimed her granddaughter Fanfan was missing, then entered the fog-shrouded building with Roman. As the elevator carried them upward, Roman reacted angrily to the newcomer who had touched Lu Mi’s shoulder.

• A bespectacled man and other players failed to get useful details from the old woman, who kept repeating that Fanfan was a lively, high-achieving child.
• Lu Mi persuaded the old woman to hand over her pocket watch and found a photograph of a woman with a young child inside it.
• Lu Mi and Roman entered the building as the white fog arrived, and the old woman melted into blood outside.
• A wide-eyed newcomer accused Lu Mi of abandoning the old woman and demanded the pocket watch, while his muscular companion tried to seize it.
• Roman briefly grabbed the muscular man's neck, and Lu Mi left the pocket watch with the wide-eyed newcomer before riding the elevator with Roman.
• Roman pushed Lu Mi against the elevator wall and said the man had touched his shoulder.

Lu Mi and Roman searched the tower for safety, then entered apartment 1004, where Lu Mi saw a mirror showing the home and grandmother he missed. Roman warned him that the floors became dangerous at night and told him to sleep.

• Lu Mi pulled Roman back into the elevator when a female ghost crawled toward him on the fourteenth floor.
• At the eighth floor, two veteran players warned them that safe floors could hold no more than two people.
• Lu Mi told Roman that even very good friends could not kiss or control each other’s touch, and they explored the tenth-floor apartment 1004.
• Lu Mi saw Grandma and a tabby cat in the mirror, resisted the cat’s invitation to enter the scene, and covered the mirror again.
• Roman explained that the mirror showed people what they longed for most, warned that the tower was dangerous at night, and told Lu Mi to sleep.

Lu Mi and Roman spent the night in their room, where Lu Mi questioned a voice trapped in a mirror and refused to help the suspicious creature. The next morning, a boy accused Lu Mi of causing Brother Zhang’s death.

• Lu Mi found a faded photo of a teenage girl in the room’s wardrobe and showed it to Roman.
• Roman and Lu Mi went to bed holding hands, and Roman comforted Lu Mi after he dreamed of Jin Bi.
• A voice from the covered mirror claimed to be seventeen-year-old Qiu Bufan and asked Lu Mi to free her.
• Lu Mi questioned the voice, recognized that it was an imperfect copy, and refused to help it.
• The players gathered in the Hall the next morning, where the boy accused Lu Mi of getting Brother Zhang killed.

Lu Mi’s fellow players dismissed Gong Tan’s accusations and confirmed the old woman was still waiting outside, while Liang Mafeng uncovered Gong Tan’s motive and offered to protect him. The group planned to identify which of the ten room spirits was the old woman’s “Fanfan,” and Huihui wondered whether Lu Mi’s Mirror Spirit, Qiu Bufan, was the one they sought.

• Gong Tan accused Lu Mi of causing Brother Zhang’s death by giving him the pocket watch and of getting the old woman killed.
• The veterans defended Lu Mi, and he pointed out that the old woman still stood outside the building beyond the white fog.
• Lu Mi discussed how the room spirits attacked players, while Roman quietly straightened his collar.
• Liang Mafeng learned that Gong Tan had tried to get Lu Mi killed so Roman would notice him, then offered to protect Gong Tan himself.
• The players decided to investigate the rooms of the two groups who had died and identify which spirit was named Fanfan.
• Huihui asked whether Lu Mi’s Mirror Spirit, Qiu Bufan, could be the Fanfan the old woman was looking for.

The players learned that the ghost girl Xiao Fan might be the Fanfan the old woman was searching for, and the old woman gave them a wooden box after panicking at the ghosts in the apartment building. Liang Mafeng took the box and chose Gong Tan to accompany him upstairs, but Lu Mi stepped in to go instead.

• Liang Mafeng described meeting a pale girl with twin ponytails on the sixth floor, who asked why he would not play with Xiao Fan.
• The players found that none of the evil spirits in their rooms was the girl, and they went outside to question the old woman about Fanfan.
• The old woman recognized the description of Xiao Fan, but became terrified when Huihui told her the girl was inside the apartment building.
• The old woman gave Huihui a wooden box with ten recesses, and Liang Mafeng took it after Huihui hesitated.
• Liang Mafeng said he wanted to test his guess about the box and asked Gong Tan to accompany him upstairs, but Lu Mi volunteered to go instead.

Lu Mi investigated the building’s dangerous floors and discovered another creature pretending to be Fanfan, then escaped with Roman. In the lobby, he found Liang Mafeng and Gong Tan already downstairs, and Huihui praised Liang Mafeng.

• Lu Mi questioned the old woman about Fanfan’s appearance, then decided to search two unknown rooms and find out what Liang Mafeng planned to do with the wooden box.
• Lu Mi and Roman encountered Hair Woman on the eleventh floor and a painting of a girl resembling Ning Zhuangzhuang on the seventeenth floor.
• Following a smell of blood, Lu Mi found a little girl claiming to be Fanfan and then Yao Yao, recognized the deception, and trapped Snake Woman behind a door with a ball of fire in her mouth.
• Lu Mi and Roman returned to the lobby, where they found Liang Mafeng and Gong Tan already there, and Huihui praised Liang Mafeng.