Chapter Summaries

Gaoyang spent his Fortune points boosting his luck and charisma before joining Qingling and Officer Huang for an interview with Wu Dahai, which turned out to be an arcade-game challenge. Officer Huang won the first match, a plane shooter, and Qingling stepped up for the next round.

• Gaoyang failed to comprehend a new talent, spent his remaining Fortune points on luck, and allocated the bonus attribute points to charisma.
• Gaoyang and Qingling arrived at the arcade and met Wu Dahai, whom Officer Huang introduced as their interviewer.
• Wu Dahai explained that they had to beat him at three arcade games to pass the interview, and Qingling questioned why they did not simply cut him down.
• Officer Huang challenged Wu Dahai to a plane shooter match and outlasted him by one second, winning the round.
• Officer Huang said Wu Dahai beat him at every game except plane shooters, so Qingling volunteered to play next.

Qingling challenged Wu Dahai at Samurai Shodown, learning the controls as he repeatedly defeated her. After she lost their wager, Wu Dahai demanded to touch her breasts before another game, and Qingling agreed to the challenge.

• Qingling chose Samurai Shodown and lost the first round to Wu Dahai without landing a hit.
• Wu Dahai taught Qingling the basic controls, but she lost the second round after managing to deal some damage.
• Qingling asked for another game and agreed to let Wu Dahai touch her hand if she lost, then lost again.
• Wu Dahai changed the wager and demanded to touch Qingling's breasts before another game.
• Gaoyang and Officer Huang tried to dissuade Qingling, but she agreed to Wu Dahai's demand.

Qingling beat Wu Dahai in a second arcade match after her alternate personality emerged and attacked him. Gaoyang chose to face Wu Dahai at a slot machine, prompting Wu Dahai to warn that he had boxed himself in.

• Wu Dahai tried to touch Qingling, but her alternate personality struck and kicked him before Gaoyang stopped her.
• Qingling returned to herself, agreed to replay the match, and promised to let Wu Dahai touch her if he won.
• Qingling defeated Wu Dahai again by blocking and countering his attacks until time ran out.
• Qingling left to calm her alternate personality, and Gaoyang chose the slot machine for his turn against Wu Dahai.
• Wu Dahai warned Gaoyang that he had boxed himself in.

Gaoyang beat Wu Dahai at the slot machine by repeatedly winning on big bets, passing the organization’s first test. Wu Dahai revealed there was a second test and shut down the arcade before leading Gaoyang and Officer Huang outside.

• Wu Dahai scored 820 points by hitting double sevens, setting a daunting target for Gaoyang.
• Gaoyang failed to hit BAR and was left with one point as his time ran short.
• Gaoyang bet on big ten times in a row, doubled his score each time, and finished with 1,248 points to beat Wu Dahai.
• Wu Dahai confirmed Gaoyang had passed the first test, but told him and Officer Huang that another test remained.
• Wu Dahai shut down the arcade machines and ceiling fan, then led Gaoyang and Officer Huang outside.

After passing the organization’s character test, Gaoyang, Qingling, and Officer Huang faced a new danger when the old man Uncle Zhang transformed into a monstrous Beast. Wu Dahai was caught by its fleshy vines, and the group was left fighting to save him as the creature attacked again.

• Wu Dahai explained that the organization’s next test would require Talents ranked in the top hundred, making Gaoyang worry that he would fail.
• Officer Huang gave Uncle Zhang a bottle and a cigarette, and Wu Dahai told the group about the old man’s violent past and his later downfall.
• After Qingling noticed Uncle Zhang had fallen, Gaoyang sensed danger and warned Wu Dahai not to approach him.
• Uncle Zhang rose unnaturally and transformed into a blood-soaked, flower-like Beast that attacked Wu Dahai with a fleshy vine.
• Officer Huang shot through the vine and freed Wu Dahai, but the Beast grew the vine back and sent three more vines toward him.

Qingling and Officer Huang fought Uncle Zhang after he transformed into a tentacled Beast, while Gaoyang and Wu Dahai stayed out of the attack. Qingling’s strike wounded Uncle Zhang but failed to kill him, and she was thrown aside as the fight continued.

• Qingling cut Uncle Zhang’s flesh vines and told Wu Dahai to run, while Gaoyang helped him retreat.
• Gaoyang took a golf club from Officer Huang’s car, and Officer Huang shot at Uncle Zhang’s exposed brain after he transformed into a mass of tentacles.
• Qingling dodged and severed Uncle Zhang’s tentacles while circling him, and Officer Huang covered her with gunfire.
• Qingling charged Uncle Zhang and swung at his brain, but returning severed tentacles struck her heels and weakened her blow.
• Uncle Zhang survived and knocked Qingling several meters away, and she reached toward him and called out, “Metal!”

Gaoyang unlocked the Copy Talent and used it to copy Qingling’s Blade God Talent, enabling him to help her kill Uncle Zhang. After Qingling finished destroying the creature, she held her blade to Gaoyang’s neck and demanded to know why he had the Blade God Talent.

• Qingling’s attack failed to kill Uncle Zhang, and his tentacles seized her and dragged her toward his body.
• Gaoyang charged to save Qingling, but a tentacle caught him; Officer Huang grabbed him and held on while Gaoyang unlocked the Copy Talent.
• Gaoyang touched Qingling and copied her Level 3 Blade God Talent, then called for her Tang Dao as he was dragged toward Uncle Zhang.
• Gaoyang used the copied Talent to cut through the tentacle binding him and slash Uncle Zhang’s main body, freeing Qingling.
• Qingling took the Tang Dao and chopped Uncle Zhang’s remains apart, then confronted Gaoyang at blade-point and demanded an explanation.

After surviving Uncle Zhang’s transformation into a Beast, Gaoyang explained his newly awakened Copy talent and spotted a mysterious white cat before it vanished. As Officer Huang drove Gaoyang and the sleeping Qingling toward home, he reflected on love and death, and Gaoyang’s sister called him in tears.

• Gaoyang revealed that his Copy talent let him temporarily copy another person’s talent through physical contact, and Officer Huang confirmed it existed before Qingling lowered her blade.
• Officer Huang gave Gaoyang and Qingling towels, then helped burn the Beast’s remains while they discarded their bloodstained uniforms.
• Gaoyang saw a white cat watching from a utility pole, but it disappeared when Officer Huang spoke to him.
• On the drive, Officer Huang discussed Qingling’s difficult childhood and his belief that love remained real even in a false world.
• Officer Huang stopped at a night market to buy noodles, and Gaoyang answered a tearful call from his sister, Gao Xinxin, who urgently asked him to come to her.

After Gaoyang’s father survived a severe car crash, Gaoyang stayed at the hospital and met surgeon Baili Yi, who revealed that he was an Awakened with a talent for identifying Beasts. Baili Yi explained what he could about Beasts and refused to answer Gaoyang’s deeper questions, leaving him with one final piece of advice.

• Gaoyang arrived at the hospital and comforted his mother and sister while his father underwent emergency surgery.
• The doctor told Gaoyang’s family that his father had survived but might be permanently confined to a wheelchair.
• After his mother and sister went home to rest, Gaoyang stayed by the intensive care unit and remembered his family’s move to Licheng.
• Baili Yi joined Gaoyang for coffee and revealed that his Red-Eye Talent let him distinguish humans from Beasts by their body temperature.
• Baili Yi explained that Beasts could live among humans without transforming and that many weakened with age.
• Gaoyang asked Baili Yi about Beasts, their origins, and his family, but Baili Yi said he could not answer most of his questions and offered one last piece of advice.

Gaoyang learned more about the Beast categories, balanced plans for spending his Fortune points, and agreed to attend Wan Sisi’s birthday party with Qingling. After his father briefly woke from intensive care, Gaoyang arrived at the party and found Niu Xuan waiting with an unsettlingly enthusiastic greeting.

• Baili Yi explained that Beasts fell into six major categories, and Gaoyang reviewed the types he had encountered while resolving to find an organization for protection and guidance.
• Gaoyang decided to divide future Fortune points between learning Talents and raising his Fortune stat, then went to school to speak with Qingling.
• Wan Sisi invited Gaoyang to her birthday party, and Qingling announced that she would come too so she could watch for signs that Wan Sisi suspected him.
• Gaoyang’s father woke briefly after forty-eight hours in intensive care, easing the family’s worry, while Gaoyang failed to learn a new Talent with sixty Fortune points.
• Gaoyang arrived late at Wan Sisi’s party at Le Baodi, where Niu Xuan stopped singing and greeted him with conspicuous enthusiasm that made Gaoyang uneasy.

Gaoyang attended Wan Sisi’s birthday banquet, where Niu Xuan tried to embarrass him by forcing him to sing. Gaoyang spent all 26 of his Fortune points improving his Charisma and stunned the room with an emotional performance, but Niu Xuan interrupted him again just as Qingling was about to tell him something.

• Gaoyang arrived at Wan Sisi’s birthday banquet with matcha cheesecake and sat beside Qingling instead of taking the seat beside Wan Sisi.
• Niu Xuan challenged Gaoyang to sing because he resented Gaoyang’s growing closeness with Qingling and Wan Sisi’s interest in him.
• Gaoyang spent all 26 of his Fortune points on Charisma before singing “Can’t Speak” with unexpected skill and emotion.
• Gaoyang’s performance moved the classmates and left Niu Xuan frustrated, while Wan Sisi reflected on Gaoyang’s feelings for Li Weiwei.
• Qingling began to tell Gaoyang something, but Niu Xuan called him over again, prompting Qingling to lose her temper and Gaoyang to promise to handle it.

Gaoyang’s dice game with Niu Xuan escalated into a violent confrontation at Wan Sisi’s birthday party, until a masked waitress intervened. She introduced herself as White Rabbit of the Twelve Zodiac and ordered Gaoyang to kill Niu Xuan, whom she identified as a Lost One.

• Niu Xuan challenged Gaoyang to a dice game and repeatedly lost, while his outbursts culminated in him smashing a glass and injuring Wan Sisi.
• Luo Xiaodan confronted Niu Xuan, and the girls and then the other boys left the room as the conflict worsened.
• Niu Xuan grabbed Gaoyang and attacked him, but Gaoyang dodged his kick and sent him into the splits before Niu Xuan hurled a microphone.
• The masked waitress caught the microphone, knocked Niu Xuan unconscious, and introduced herself as White Rabbit of the Twelve Zodiac.
• White Rabbit recognized Gaoyang’s connection to Electric Rat, confirmed that Qingling held a weapon, and began the second test by ordering Gaoyang to kill Niu Xuan, a Lost One.

Gaoyang refused White Rabbit’s test to kill Niu Xuan, reasoning that the request was meant to reveal their attitude toward Lost Ones. His refusal passed the test, but he and Qingling remained on probation and received a final task: find the door opened by a sinister brass key somewhere in Shanqing District.

• Qingling prepared to stab the unconscious Niu Xuan, but Gaoyang stopped her and questioned why they had to kill a Lost One.
• Gaoyang decided White Rabbit was testing whether they would accept killing Lost Ones and firmly refused; Qingling trusted him and put away her dagger.
• White Rabbit approved Gaoyang’s answer about preserving the world’s order and revealed the organization’s rules against initiating the killing of humans or Lost Ones, and against office romances.
• White Rabbit told Gaoyang and Qingling they were on probation and gave them a brass key, instructing them to find its door in Shanqing District and warning them not to die.

Gaoyang learned that his brass key led to a dangerous third test, and Officer Huang gathered a group to find its door. They discovered it was in Gu Family Village, the site of an unsolved massacre and the unexplained disappearance of all its residents.

• Officer Huang told Gaoyang that Tengu had tested him by demanding he kill a Lost One or his wife, and Gaoyang shared the brass key’s test instructions.
• Officer Huang found a likely location for the key and brought Gaoyang, Qingling, Wang Zikai, and Pang Jun to Mount Li’s southwestern side.
• Officer Huang led the group through farmland toward Gu Family Village and explained that a family of five had been massacred there thirty years earlier.
• Officer Huang said all fifty-three villagers had vanished less than two weeks after the murders, and revealed that the brass key opened a door in Gu Family Village.

Gaoyang and the others entered the abandoned Gu Family Village to investigate the ancestral hall, where they encountered a supernatural attack. Black hair erupted from the dry well and trapped Pang Jun, leaving the group to face the threat.

• Officer Huang led Gaoyang, Qingling, Wang Zikai, and Pang Jun through the deserted village to the Gu Ancestral Hall.
• Wang Zikai kicked open the hall doors, and Gaoyang copied Officer Huang’s level 3 Gun God Talent after borrowing his handgun.
• The group inspected the ancestral hall, while Pang Jun panicked at Wang Zikai reading the names on the spirit tablets.
• An eerie rustling sound came from the courtyard, and Pang Jun ran from the hall despite Gaoyang’s warning.
• Black hair burst from the dry well and wrapped Pang Jun in a human-shaped bundle as he reached for Gaoyang.

Gaoyang and Qingling survived the collapse of the ancestral hall and woke near Gu Family Village, where a villager described a gruesome massacre. Gaoyang realized the village was not the same one they had entered before.

• Wang Zikai held Pang Jun while Qingling cut through the black hair, but the strands wrapped around Qingling and dragged them toward the well.
• Gaoyang and Officer Huang joined Wang Zikai, Pang Jun, and Qingling in resisting the pull until the ground collapsed and all five fell underground.
• Gaoyang woke in daylight beside Qingling, and they found themselves at the entrance to Gu Family Village.
• An old man told Gaoyang and Qingling that five members of Hua Zi's family had been dismembered overnight and pointed them toward the ancestral hall.
• Gaoyang and Qingling noticed that the stone marker was intact, unlike when they had arrived before, and Gaoyang concluded this was a different Gu Family Village.

Gaoyang and the others discovered that Gu Family Village was sealed inside a strange space they could not escape. They went to the village funeral to pay respects and investigate Hua Zi’s case, where Officer Huang introduced the group as police interns.

• Gaoyang told Officer Huang his theory that this was a different Gu Family Village, and Officer Huang took him to the grove to test its boundary.
• Gaoyang tried to leave the grove but found the edge remained out of reach, while Officer Huang observed that Gaoyang seemed not to move from his perspective.
• Wang Zikai, Pang Jun, and Qingling reported that they also could not leave the village, so Gaoyang urged the group to look for an exit.
• The group decided to settle in and pay respects at the ancestral hall, where Master Wu and Gu Xianzhi were recording funeral donations.
• Officer Huang identified himself as a police officer investigating the case, then introduced Gaoyang and the others as police academy interns and followed Gu Xianzhi under the funeral canopy.

Gaoyang and the others attended the funeral feast for the Gu family and learned more about the unsolved murders and the village’s disappearance. As they left, Wang Zikai vomited writhing worms and mud-dwelling creatures.

• Officer Huang learned from Sister Fan that villagers had arranged Hua Zi’s funeral because the family had few relatives.
• Gaoyang and the others noticed the funeral photograph showed only four men, and Officer Huang explained that the newlywed wife’s identity and head had never been found after the family was dismembered.
• Wang Zikai ate and drank at the funeral feast while the others avoided the food.
• Officer Huang said the villagers would disappear the day after the burial, and Gaoyang realized that would be tomorrow.
• Wang Zikai vomited a heap of writhing earthworms and mud-dwelling worms as the others gathered around him.

Gaoyang’s Copy talent leveled up while the group waited in the grove outside Gu Family Village, and Officer Huang decided they should return to the village for shelter. The five entered the house where a family of five had been murdered, and Officer Huang opened its sealed front door.

• Wang Zikai slept off his apparent poisoning while the others rested in pairs in the grove.
• Gaoyang checked his Fortune points, then copied Qingling’s Blade God talent and leveled up his Copy ability to level 2.
• Officer Huang proposed returning to Gu Family Village after dark, and Pang Jun reluctantly agreed when Gaoyang and Qingling explained the danger of staying in the grove.
• Wang Zikai woke, and the five followed Officer Huang through the dark village to the house where a family of five had been murdered.
• Officer Huang tore off the police sealing strip and opened the house’s front door as the others stared at the bloodstained yard.

Gaoyang and the others investigated the abandoned Hua family home and reasoned that finding the Beast behind the massacre might let them escape Gu Family Village. As they discussed the Beast types they knew, someone knocked at the door.

• Officer Huang and Gaoyang searched the dusty, long-abandoned-looking house and found no signs of a struggle in the main room.
• Officer Huang examined the bridal chamber and recalled that Hua Zi's family had been dismembered after something happened on the bride's wedding night.
• Gaoyang and Officer Huang concluded they needed to identify who killed the family, while Officer Huang described Greed Beasts and Delusion Beasts.
• Gaoyang proposed that an unknown Beast had created Gu Family Village as a domain, and the group agreed to find and kill it before hunger and thirst weakened them.
• Someone knocked at the front door, and Gaoyang turned toward it.