Chapter Summaries

Su Chen was chosen as Dragon Country’s contestant in a world of horror tales and gained a system that let him set a save point before being transported to a zoo scenario. He arrived with a zoo map and found an unusual dashed-off section near the entrance, then discovered the visitor rules on the map’s reverse.

• Su Chen learned that chosen ones faced horror scenarios whose outcomes affected their nations, while Dragon Country’s viewers and Horror-Tale Department worried about his prospects.
• Su Chen received the Horror-Tale Rule Analysis System and claimed a Death Rewind Trial Coupon that let him return to a saved moment after dying.
• Su Chen used the coupon to set his current moment as a save point.
• Su Chen was teleported to an enormous zoo with the other chosen ones and examined his map.
• Su Chen noticed that a dashed section near the entrance contained only the Rabbit Area, White Lion Area, Ape Area, and Elephant Area, then turned the map over to read the Zoo Visitor Rules.

Su Chen studied the zoo’s contradictory visitor rules and debated whether the blue text or the black text could be trusted. He decided to watch what the other Chosen Ones did and choose the opposite, then memorized the rules and pocketed his map.

• Su Chen noticed that many rules contained blue text that contradicted the black text.
• Su Chen considered whether the blue text offered genuine safety advice, including warnings about rabbit blood and directions to an emergency exit.
• Su Chen recalled his ability to reset after death and decided he could test both approaches.
• Su Chen chose to do the opposite of the other Chosen Ones and use their actions as a reference.
• Su Chen reread the rules, memorized them, and put the map in his pocket.

Dragon Country’s experts debated which zoo rules were correct while viewers feared Su Chen had misunderstood them. Kim Xiba approached Su Chen, offering help, but Su Chen remembered how Kim and Yamashita Kenichiro had betrayed Dragon Country’s previous Chosen One.

• Dragon Country’s livestream viewers saw Su Chen put away the rules and cursed him after his personal information described him as mentally impaired.
• Elder Qin heard the computer’s analysis and waited for more intelligence before deciding whether to advise Su Chen to trust the blue rules.
• Kim Xiba concluded that the blue rules were correct and mocked the other Chosen Ones for failing to understand them.
• Kim Xiba approached Su Chen, expressed false sympathy over the previous Chosen One’s death, and offered to identify the correct rules.
• Su Chen recalled that Kim Xiba and Yamashita Kenichiro had sabotaged Dragon Country’s previous Chosen One after learning a hidden rule, and his gaze turned cold.

Su Chen entered the zoo and ignored the blue rules in the rabbit area, while Kim Xiba followed them and suffered a grotesque mutation after petting a rabbit. The other chosen ones fled in panic, and Lamb kicked Yamashita Kenichiro off the path as they tried to escape.

• Su Chen entered the zoo, found an invisible wall blocking his exit, and walked through the rabbit area while ignoring the blue rules.
• Kim Xiba entered the rabbit area, decided the blue rules were correct, and began petting a rabbit in the shade.
• After Kim Xiba stroked the rabbit ten times, eerie laughter sounded and a second pair of eyes and rabbit ears grew on his body.
• The other chosen ones panicked and fled, with many being shoved into the shade and forced to pet rabbits.
• Lamb kicked Yamashita Kenichiro off the path and threatened him as Yamashita scrambled away from the shade.

Su Chen escaped the Rabbit Area’s laughter by following Rule Eight, then entered the Ape Area. In the Rabbit Area, Kim Xiba returned to normal after handing over his rabbit, but the rabbit ate a torn map piece and the black-clad staff member fled, leaving the others uncertain about the danger.

• Su Chen heard laughter from the Rabbit Area, tore off the dotted section of his map, and held it until the feeling of being watched faded.
• Su Chen reviewed the rules for the Ape Area and entered it.
• Kim Xiba returned to normal, gave his rabbit to a black-clad staff member, and watched as the staff member fed the rabbit a torn map section.
• The rabbit ate the paper and laughed, prompting the black-clad staff member to flee toward the Ape Area.
• Kim Xiba discovered his rabbit ears were intangible, while Lamb and Yamashita Kenichiro argued over whether the strange effects were harmless illusions.
• The other contestants in the Rabbit Area returned to normal and carried their rabbits onward in search of staff.

Kim Xiba realized the rabbit ears were an illusion and tricked the other contestants into entering the rabbit enclosure. In the Ape Area, Su Chen encountered signs that the blue rules were real and hurried onward, while Dragon Country’s viewers panicked because he had not received a warning.

• Kim Xiba discovered that the rabbit ears on his head were an illusion, then pretended the blue text was dangerous to send the other contestants toward the rabbits.
• The contestants received guidance from their countries confirming that Kim Xiba was lying, and they rushed into the rabbit enclosure to search for rabbits.
• Su Chen saw a black-uniformed figure run past him, then noticed a fork in the path and an ape wearing a black staff uniform.
• Su Chen recalled the second rule’s warning and hurried onward, while Dragon Country’s viewers argued over whether he was following the wrong rules.

Elder Qin trusted Su Chen’s judgment despite the computer analysis favoring the blue rules, and Su Chen chose the left path. At the Ape Area, Kim Xiba led many contestants with rabbit ears down the right path, while Yamashita Kenichiro stayed behind, suspecting the opposite choice was safer.

• Elder Qin rejected calls to warn Su Chen, saying the paper clenched in his fist showed he had seen through Kim Xiba’s deception and had his own reasons for choosing a path.
• Elder Qin ordered officials to stop viewers from abusing Su Chen and to block foreign countries from watching the Dragon Country livestream.
• Su Chen walked into the left fork and disappeared into the mist.
• Contestants from most countries reached the Ape Area, where many had rabbit ears and rabbits after following the blue rules; Lamb and Yamashita Kenichiro stood out among them.
• After seeing the black-clothed ape and reaching a fork, Kim Xiba entered the right path, followed by many contestants with rabbit ears.
• Yamashita Kenichiro decided that reversing the false black rule meant staying put, and watched Lamb leave while calling him an idiot.

Su Chen emerged from the fog and found a cryptic note filled with contradictory rules about the zoo’s animals and visitors. After reading a security guard’s warning, he began connecting the notes to the visitor rules and piecing together how to survive.

• Yamashita Kenichiro watched a blue-uniformed staff member close the Ape Area and lead the remaining chosen ones down the left road, confirming Yamashita’s guess.
• Su Chen emerged from the fog and picked up a crumpled note listing bizarre rules about rabbits, apes, goats, elephants, and other animals.
• Su Chen entered an empty security office and examined a photograph of a scarred guard and the note left on the desk.
• Su Chen read the guard’s advice about maintaining his sense of self, trusting animals, avoiding certain creatures, and ignoring strange food.
• Su Chen compared the guard’s advice with the visitor rules and the crumpled note, then began forming a chain of reasoning.

Su Chen analyzed the zoo’s conflicting rules and concluded that “it” was distorting both reality and the rules, while blue text served as a warning. After pocketing the security memo, he prepared to explore further, as Dragon Country’s viewers began to trust him.

• Su Chen reasoned that blue text warned visitors about traps because “it” could not distinguish blue from black, and that undistorted rules reflected things “it” feared or could not tell apart.
• Su Chen concluded that visitors should keep their perceptions steady and close to “its” perception if it noticed them, and that changes to a person’s eyes could signal danger.
• Su Chen tore down the security memo, put it in his pocket, and decided to search elsewhere for clues.
• Dragon Country’s viewers discussed Su Chen’s deductions and gradually shifted from doubting him to trusting him.

Su Chen entered the zoo shop to investigate its clues but was hit by a three-part cognitive assault involving a black-clad employee, bottles of rabbit blood, and sinister stuffed rabbits. He resisted the contamination by repeating that he was human, then found the employee watching him with interest.

• Elder Qin ordered his team to analyze the other chosen ones and send their findings to Su Chen while the firewall endured foreign attacks.
• Su Chen entered the shop, where he saw a black-clad employee and shelves of rabbit blood drinks and stuffed rabbits.
• The stuffed rabbits appeared to come alive, and Su Chen suffered disturbing visions, pain, and chaotic thoughts.
• Su Chen repeated that he was human, regained control, and shut his eyes to break contact with the contamination.
• Su Chen steadied himself and looked at the black-clad employee, who was studying him with interest.

Su Chen uncovered the black-uniformed man's scheme to sell aquarium tickets and obtain a visitor's map section. He exposed the man as an impostor and secured a deal to read the Employee Handbook in exchange for keeping his secret and helping lure in a visitor.

• Su Chen refused the black-uniformed man's offers and asked whether he knew about the aquarium.
• The man revealed that the aquarium had just opened and offered Su Chen a ticket in exchange for using his zoo map.
• Su Chen handed over his damaged map, and the man's reaction confirmed that he wanted its dotted-line section.
• Su Chen accused the man of pretending to be staff and threatened to fetch the Blue-Uniformed Staff.
• Su Chen proposed reading the Employee Handbook in exchange for keeping the man's secret and helping lure in a visitor, and the man agreed.

Su Chen read the zoo’s Employee Handbook and considered what its rules revealed about the staff and the force distorting them. He focused on the crossed-out passage, which described what happened to someone attacked by a white lion.

• The man in black handed Su Chen the Employee Handbook, hoping cooperation would earn him a good impression.
• Su Chen read the handbook’s rules, which covered dangerous situations involving the rabbits, apes, elephants, Aquarium, and white lions.
• Su Chen noticed that none of the handbook’s rules contained blue text and considered whether the employees could resist the distortion or whether it no longer cared about the rules.
• Su Chen concluded that most rules confirmed the blue rules were traps, while the crossed-out passage about surviving a white lion attack deserved closer thought.

Su Chen realized that the Rabbit Blood on the Beverage Shop’s shelves was a test and bought a bottle despite the visitor rule warning him away from it. Sunlight revealed that the bottle was mineral water and most of the shop’s shelves were distorted, and Su Chen left for the Elephant Enclosure.

• Su Chen considered the Aquarium’s possible role in escaping the Zoo and remembered the warning not to change his clothes or put on a black uniform.
• Su Chen connected the Rabbit Blood rule with the security guard’s note about food that appeared inexplicably and decided to buy a bottle.
• The man in black reacted with surprise when Su Chen handed over the Rabbit Blood, but scanned it and accepted payment.
• Sunlight turned the bottle’s label into “mineral water” and revealed that the Rabbit Blood shelves were actually stocked with water.
• Su Chen realized the shop had distorted his perception and headed toward the Elephant Enclosure.

At the Strange Tales Department, Elder Qin urged his colleagues to support Su Chen without prejudice as they searched for the aquarium’s exit. In the Elephant Area, Su Chen exploited Kim Xiba’s collapsing cognition with conflicting claims and questions, leaving Kim Xiba in agony as Su Chen continued toward the enclosure.

• Elder Qin told the Strange Tales Department that he had trusted Su Chen’s actions over his personal records, and the group resumed analyzing data for a route through the aquarium.
• Su Chen encountered Kim Xiba staring at the elephant enclosure and recognized that his cognition had been severely corrupted.
• Su Chen told Kim Xiba that the black text was true and the blue rules were false, making him visibly recoil.
• Su Chen asked Kim Xiba whether he was a rabbit or a human, and whether he was human or an ape.
• Kim Xiba clawed at his face and tore at his hair as his rabbit ears became physically reachable, while Su Chen turned away and headed for the Elephant Area.

Pickle Country’s Chosen One, Kim Xiba, died after the officials sent him their decoded rules, bringing drought upon his country. Terrified that Su Chen would punish him too, Yamashita Kenichiro begged for forgiveness and blamed Kim Xiba, leaving Su Chen to consider killing him.

• Pickle Country’s officials sent Kim Xiba their findings, but he went laughing into the Rabbit Zone and was swallowed by a shadow creature.
• Kim Xiba’s death cost Pickle Country 20 points of national fortune and brought a month of drought, prompting the president to order his family arrested and put on a public livestream.
• Yamashita Kenichiro, who had watched Kim Xiba die, feared Su Chen would come after him because they had betrayed Dragon Country’s Chosen One in the previous scenario.
• Yamashita Kenichiro ran to Su Chen, knelt, confessed his wrongdoing, blamed Kim Xiba, and repeatedly struck his forehead against the ground.
• Su Chen realized Yamashita Kenichiro was begging out of fear and considered killing him to answer for the people who had died in the previous scenario.

Su Chen lured Yamashita Kenichiro into the Death Shop, where Kenichiro obtained an Aquarium ticket and drank something Su Chen suspected was dangerous. Su Chen and Kenichiro entered the Elephant Enclosure together, and Su Chen concluded that it held a major threat.

• Su Chen forgave Yamashita Kenichiro and agreed to let him follow along, while secretly planning to kill him.
• Su Chen told Kenichiro that Kim Xiba had died because of a hidden rule in the shop and sent him to ask the shop assistant in black for more secrets.
• Kenichiro visited the shop, returned with an Aquarium ticket, and claimed he had been given warm holy water that he could not bring back.
• Su Chen and Kenichiro entered the Elephant Enclosure, each concealing his intentions from the other.
• Pickle Country's leaders protested Kim Xiba's death and demanded an apology and compensation, but Dragon Country warned them not to test its bottom line.
• Su Chen reasoned that the Elephant Enclosure must contain enormous danger because the trial could not be cleared so easily.

Su Chen and Yamashita Kenichiro entered the Elephant Enclosure, while Sakura Country’s hint about the rabbit blood pushed Yamashita toward cognitive collapse. As Su Chen faced the danger ahead, Dragon Country’s analysts suspected the Aquarium connected the Surface and Otherworld through cognitive pollution and rushed to send him the information.

• Yamashita Kenichiro briefly saw an Aquarium near the gates, but Su Chen could not see it and suspected that cognitive pollution let people perceive it.
• Foreign countries flooded into Dragon Country’s live streams, and countries with hint opportunities sent their Chosen Ones the rules and analysis they had gathered.
• Sakura Country told Yamashita Kenichiro that the drink he had consumed was rabbit blood, causing his cognition to waver as he realized what he had swallowed.
• A Dragon Country analyst connected the Aquarium to Silent Hill and proposed that cognitive pollution allowed people to switch between the Surface and Otherworld.
• Elder Qin judged the theory plausible and ordered the incomplete analysis sent to Su Chen before he encountered danger in the Elephant Enclosure.

Su Chen received Dragon Country’s analysis of the Zoo’s rules and their unconditional support, then realized the rabbit-eared visitors entering the Elephant Enclosure triggered a dangerous rule. Suspecting his thinking had been affected by contamination, he broke free of his daze and ran for the Elephant Area’s exit.

• Elder Qin ordered his team to send Su Chen their analysis and guesses, making clear he could decide for himself and would have their full support.
• Su Chen read the message, considered the possibility that cognitive pollution could switch people between the Surface and the Otherworld, and felt encouraged by Dragon Country’s note.
• Su Chen noticed Yamashita Kenichiro had survived and was hiding his resentment behind a smile, so Su Chen continued walking with him without exposing him.
• Rabbit-eared people and fur-covered people entered the Elephant Area, and Su Chen recognized them as polluted visitors from the Ape Area’s right-hand path.
• Su Chen realized the rules about rabbit-ear accessories referred to the rabbit-eared people, wondered whether contamination had affected his thoughts, and ran toward the exit while repeating that he was human.

Su Chen became trapped in the Elephant Enclosure as the Zoo’s influence distorted his perception and forced him to look at white elephants with rabbit ears. He was left facing an apparent no-win situation, while Chosen Ones in other countries suffered even worse transformations.

• Su Chen noticed extra eyes on his face, then realized that fleeing instead of behaving like a Zoo visitor had drawn its attention; he slowed down and pretended to admire the elephants until his vision returned to normal.
• A white elephant with rabbit ears appeared, and Su Chen found that he could no longer remember what real elephant ears looked like.
• A herd of rabbit-eared elephants appeared, while Su Chen lost control of his legs and eyelids and began to feel that he was an elephant.
• Su Chen reinforced his understanding that he was human, regained control of his eyelids, and shut his eyes to block the contamination.
• Su Chen discovered that he could still see from every direction, and he realized that both looking at the elephants and refusing to look at them made the Zoo target him.
• Viewers saw Chosen Ones from other countries, especially the one from Ugly Country, happily dancing with rabbit ears on their heads.

Su Chen was targeted by an entity that corrupted his perception of elephants, leaving him unable to distinguish the real animal from its twisted appearance. As his mind collapsed, he saw the Elephant Enclosure sign change to “Goat Area.”

• Dragon Country's viewers saw eyes covering Su Chen's face and realized the entity was corrupting his perception.
• Su Chen recited the rules and recalled that the Employee Handbook said to trust the elephant depicted on the sign.
• Su Chen looked at the sign and saw an elephant with rabbit ears, making him doubt what he remembered.
• Su Chen bit his tongue to clear his thoughts and realized the entity had twisted the sign as well.
• Su Chen's perception collapsed under the entity's gaze, and he saw the sign change to “Goat Area.”