Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi watched the Night Watchman destroy the Grinning Angel and open a path back to Mao Feiyang’s classroom, but Mao Feiyang instead demanded passage to the Clock Tower. After Mao Feiyang proved his agreement by beginning to recite a secret code, the Night Watchman transported him near the Clock Tower, where Mao Feiyang revealed he had visited many times in simulations.

• The Night Watchman petrified and shattered the Grinning Angel as Mao Feiyang emerged from the Gallery, and Lin Yi realized the Gallery had multiple exits.
• The Night Watchman opened a route through a Covered Corridor back to the Lookout linked to Mao Feiyang’s Art Classroom, but Mao Feiyang asked for a different route to the Clock Tower.
• The Night Watchman threatened Mao Feiyang unless he gave a reason, and Mao Feiyang said he was going to collect the first payment as agreed.
• When the Night Watchman demanded proof, Mao Feiyang began reciting the numbers “4,” “0,” and “1,” prompting the Night Watchman to accept his claim and silence him before he could continue.
• The Night Watchman used his power over space to transport Mao Feiyang near the Clock Tower, where Lin Yi recognized a Corpse Sculpture marking its entrance.
• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi that although this was his first time there in person, he had been there many times in simulations.

Mao Feiyang brought Lin Yi to the Clock Tower to collect a Deposit from Night Watchman-02, who gave him a mysterious Bronze Key connected to another Clock Tower and a sculpted feather for protection. Mao Feiyang left with a promise to begin the requested task, while Lin Yi suspected that Mao Feiyang and Young Master Tian were hiding part of their plan from him.

• Mao Feiyang and Lin Yi crossed into the Clock Tower, where Mao Feiyang studied its inscriptions and stopped short of the upper level after a gust cut his cheek.
• Night Watchman-02 tossed Mao Feiyang a Black Wooden Box containing a Bronze Key that Mao Feiyang identified as the key to a different Clock Tower.
• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi that he would soon learn more about the other Clock Tower, prompting Lin Yi to suspect Mao Feiyang and Young Master Tian had concealed a plan from him.
• Mao Feiyang promised Night Watchman-02 he would begin the agreed task after leaving and said the person collecting the Final Payment would arrive that night or the next day.
• Night Watchman-02 gave Mao Feiyang a sculpted feather that could protect him from being killed until he returned to the Safe Place.
• Mao Feiyang asked Night Watchman-02 for a ride to the Gallery, but Night Watchman-02 ordered him to leave and threatened to throw him down the Staircase.

Mao Feiyang used the Night Watchman’s blessing to grant himself a way around the Art Student Rules and set out toward the Bedroom, while revealing his hidden plan involving the Time Compass. He also confirmed that the Stairwell led to the Ancient Deep Well, whose mysterious occupant might know Lin Yi.

• Mao Feiyang entered the Medium Portal after the Night Watchman reluctantly wished him good luck, and Night Watchman-02 complained about him afterward.
• Mao Feiyang avoided killing the contaminated Art Student, then planned to reach the Bedroom by using his self-created identity as a Messenger to bypass the Art Student Rules.
• Mao Feiyang explained that he had turned the Night Watchman’s blessing into a buff by overwriting his own Cognition, and revealed that the Clock Tower held the Time Compass, Time Zero, as a backup plan.
• Mao Feiyang said the Clock Tower drifted through the Layers and could be located with its key, then confirmed that the bottom of the Stairwell was the Ancient Deep Well.
• Mao Feiyang warned Lin Yi that the Well’s possibly living occupant could know about anyone who learned of it, and said he might understand its identity when Lin Yi became strong enough to protect himself.

Mao Feiyang used the Feather Sculpture to protect himself and Lin Yi from the Night-Walking Species and the Gallery’s supernatural atmosphere while searching the Art Building for the Bedroom. As he inspected the Gallery’s paintings, he asked Lin Yi whether he remembered the images that had appeared before his consciousness reached the Little Girl’s Bedroom.

• Mao Feiyang and Lin Yi left the Stairwell, and Mao Feiyang chose to search for the Little Girl’s Bedroom first to honor his agreement with Night Watchman-02.
• The Art Building shook as Night Watchman-02 rang the Sanctuary to begin the Gray Fog Invasion, and Mao Feiyang went outside carrying the Feather Sculpture.
• The Feather Sculpture repelled the Night-Walking Species and created a temporary protective domain around Mao Feiyang in the Gallery.
• Mao Feiyang explained that Feather Pupils came from Grinning Angels and that the Feather Sculpture’s protective field was gradually consuming it.
• Mao Feiyang searched the Gallery’s paintings and asked Lin Yi whether he remembered the images that had appeared before his consciousness reached her Bedroom.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang searched the Gallery for the pathway to the Little Girl’s Bedroom and found a painting that served as the starting point for a layer leap. Mao Feiyang entered the painting’s fog and continued forward as a sinister chant filled the space.

• Mao Feiyang led Lin Yi through the Gallery with the Feather Sculpture, whose haze kept the hostile artworks and creatures at bay.
• Mao Feiyang found a painting of a European manor and explained that it marked the starting point of a special pathway between layers.
• Mao Feiyang put away the Feather Sculpture, and fog revealed the manor as a ruined cemetery beneath a blood-red sky while a gaunt, illusory face appeared beside him.
• Mao Feiyang plunged into the fog toward the painting as Lin Yi watched and heard an ominous chant spread around them.
• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi to stay calm and said he could keep moving forward by firmly believing he was doing so.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang crossed the Gray Fog and reached the graveyard inside the painting, where they discussed how each Layer’s reality depended on belief and cognition. A strange figure appeared in the cemetery, and Mao Feiyang warned that people drawn too deeply into a Layer could become trapped Lost Souls.

• Mao Feiyang struggled through the Gray Fog as an ancient chant surrounded him, while Lin Yi tried to keep him focused.
• Mao Feiyang explained that the chant marked their approach to the place of Time Exile, and warned that creatures from the gaps between Layers were drawing near.
• Mao Feiyang completed the Layer Leap and brought Lin Yi into the graveyard inside the painting, where the fog and chanting began to fade.
• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi that denying their existence could cause the Layer to erase them, and described philosophy and science as anchors for cognition.
• Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang heard footsteps and spotted a human figure in the mist; Mao Feiyang identified such beings as Lost Souls trapped in the Layer and warned Lin Yi not to become immersed in its illusions.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang searched a cemetery for a route to the next layer while a dangerous old cowboy pursued them. Mao Feiyang found a broken Wordless Stele, incapacitated the cowboy, and left Lin Yi wondering how Mao Feiyang had used a skill Lin Yi had only recently learned.

• Mao Feiyang explained that lost souls were bound to the paintings’ worlds and that Lin Yi and he needed to find a gravestone that matched Lin Yi’s memory of “her” Bedroom.
• Lin Yi used Domain Insight to spread his perception through the cemetery as an old cowboy emerged from the mist and charged at them with a shovel.
• Mao Feiyang dodged the cowboy’s attacks while searching, and Lin Yi recognized the familiar flow of the cowboy’s movements as resembling Wei Liang’s Unorthodox Tricks.
• Mao Feiyang suddenly used a movement like Lin Yi’s Asura Flash, leaving Lin Yi to wonder how he had learned the recently awakened skill.
• Mao Feiyang found a broken Wordless Stele and used Advanced Perception to slow the cowboy, cut the muscles in his legs, and escape the attack.
• Lin Yi asked Mao Feiyang whether he recognized the gravestone.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang found the Quartermaster in a sunken ship’s hold, where it recognized them and said it had been waiting. After they escaped, Mao Feiyang explained that the Quartermaster had summoned them and hinted at a connection involving Lin Yi’s future self and time.

• Old Cowboy summoned the Layer Natives and pursued Mao Feiyang as he ran toward the place Lin Yi sensed.
• Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang found a gravestone marked “PUDDING,” and Mao Feiyang implied that Lin Yi already knew who “she” was.
• Mao Feiyang closed his eyes and transitioned through a sea-like vision into a rotting ship’s hold, where Lin Yi recognized the Quartermaster from his hallucinations.
• The Quartermaster spoke of a promise and waiting for them, while Mao Feiyang warned Lin Yi not to draw its attention to “02” and led him away.
• Lin Yi realized he had encountered the ship’s hold in the Gallery, and Mao Feiyang explained that the Quartermaster had summoned them and might not be allied with the Night Watchmen.
• Mao Feiyang suggested Lin Yi’s future self might meet the Quartermaster through a time vortex, then warned that the Dream Boundary and time were dangerous.

Mao Feiyang and Lin Yi reached the Little Girl's Bedroom, where Mao Feiyang survived the iron door's deadly attack after a mysterious force pulled him inside. They searched the room for the Principal's Office, but the chapter ended as Mao Feiyang noticed a fairy-tale book on the bookshelf.

• Mao Feiyang used the Feather Sculpture to cross layers and arrive with Lin Yi at the Bedroom's stairwell.
• When Mao Feiyang touched the iron door, its rust became a deadly door god, but a gentle, unseen force pulled him through the door.
• Inside the Bedroom, Mao Feiyang found the teddy bear seated opposite the door, though it did not attack him.
• Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang discussed whether the Night Watchman and Quartermaster might be on opposing sides, then began searching the room before the Feather Sculpture ran out of power.
• Mao Feiyang peered through a gap in the curtain and saw a brilliant starry sky, then checked the bed and rug before examining the bookshelf.
• Mao Feiyang spotted a book among the fairy tales and smiled helplessly.

Mao Feiyang used the Bronze Key to wind Amon's Music Box, revealing that the Quartermaster was hidden in the painting behind the curtains and that its music could guide Night Watchman-02 to the location. After Lin Yi left the dream, Mao Feiyang departed the Bedroom, and a shadowy little girl appeared and took the music box.

• Mao Feiyang told Lin Yi that the Quartermaster was in the painting behind the curtains and that Amon's Music Box could reveal the route.
• Mao Feiyang used the Bronze Key as the music box's winding key and set it playing, causing the painting to show the Black Moon Outpost, the cliff, and the rotting ship below.
• Mao Feiyang said the Principal's Office was not on that side and that he would return to the Art Classroom before seeking the Stargazing Platform.
• Mao Feiyang asked whether the plan was proceeding as planned, and Lin Yi said Young Master Tian had the situation under control before leaving the dream.
• Mao Feiyang turned a cartoon picture frame toward the wall, pushed the trembling books back into the bookcase, and exited the Bedroom.
• A shadowy Gothic-dressed little girl emerged in the Bedroom, sang a nursery rhyme, and picked up Amon's Music Box.

Lin Yi emerged from Mao Feiyang’s Dream Boundary with clues about the Quartermaster, Amon’s Music Box, and the Bronze Key, then entered Kuai Hongji’s perspective in the Wooded Belt. He discovered Kuai Hongji was preparing by carving symbols resembling Admonition into trees and Wrathful Angel Sculptures, raising the possibility that Kuai Hongji understood the powerful script.

• Little Girl carried Amon’s Music Box out of her bedroom, completing a time loop that led her to meet Mao Feiyang in the Gallery.
• Lin Yi left Mao Feiyang’s Dream Boundary and recalled clues about the Quartermaster, the Bronze Key, and a possible time paradox involving Amon’s Music Box.
• Lin Yi entered Kuai Hongji’s perspective in the Wooded Belt and watched him carve marks into tree trunks and locate Wrathful Angel Sculptures.
• Kuai Hongji slapped a trembling Wrathful Angel Sculpture until it became docile, then carved symbols into its shell.
• Lin Yi recognized that Kuai Hongji’s symbols resembled Admonition and wondered whether Kuai Hongji could understand and use it.

Lin Yi used Tian Bufan’s perspective to investigate the strange wind beyond a broken classroom window, where Domain Insight revealed a distorted sea and a vortex. A figure warned him about time, urged him not to save someone and to run, while a chorus of sculptures promised to await him in the Wasteland.

• Lin Yi wondered whether Kuai Hongji and the night watchmen were connected to Supreme Judgment, then suspected Kuai Hongji had been setting up a matrix.
• From Tian Bufan’s perspective, Lin Yi heard Tian Bufan address him and followed his guidance to sense the wind at a broken classroom window.
• Lin Yi’s perception was torn apart when he reached through the crack, so he used Domain Insight to examine the world beyond it.
• Lin Yi saw the Art Building, a sea of impossible colors, drifting ashes, and a vortex that formed in the distorted space.
• A figure emerged from the vortex and warned Lin Yi that the time was wrong, told him not to save someone and to run, and called him the key before being pulled away.
• Broken sculptures sang to Lin Yi, saying they awaited him in the Wasteland and that he knew their form, name, authority, and power.

Lin Yi revisited the rainy night of May 9 through his Dream Boundary and discovered that he had spoken a powerful Admonition in a mysterious language while fighting the High-Rank Alien Angel. As the dream began to break apart, he also glimpsed a figure resembling the Proto-Type Ashes Apostles.

• Lin Yi connected Tian Bufan’s dream messages about time and a key to The Starry Night and the Principal’s Office.
• Lin Yi realized Tian Bufan, Maozi, and Kuai Kuai might have been using Dream Sharing to send him information and test whether he was listening.
• Lin Yi entered his own memories of the May 9 battle at the Art Building, where the High-Rank Alien Angel’s tendrils tore at him while his flesh regenerated.
• Lin Yi relived his past self chanting a Norwegian-like Admonition, then understood that the words had awakened the power of Supreme Judgment and let him break through the Angel’s blockade.
• Lin Yi spotted a fleeting figure amid the fog that might have been one of the Proto-Type Ashes Apostles, just as cloud vapor began to dissolve the dream perspective.

Lin Yi revisited a Library memory, heard the Little Girl warn him not to cry, and recovered an Admonition about the Mourners returning. In a frozen memory of the classroom battle, he heard the Principal’s message urging him to find the Notebook and Time Compass, destroy or reconstruct the notes, and escape the Campus.

• Lin Yi saw the Little Girl’s will guide his past self toward The Law-Establisher's Words, and she recognized his rune-branded arm before telling him not to cry.
• Lin Yi deciphered the Admonition: “When the black moon withers, the Mourners shall return from the Endless Deep Sea.”
• Lin Yi’s vision shifted to the frozen classroom scene where the Proto-Type Ashes Apostles had descended, and he recognized a figure within its spiraling form.
• The figure identified himself as the Principal and said he had found a breakthrough but was trapped beyond a boundary and unable to return.
• The Principal told Lin Yi to find his Notebook, destroy it or try reconstructing it, locate the Time Compass, and escape the Campus.

Lin Yi heard the Proto-Type Ashes Apostle call itself the Principal and feared that his identity and memories were part of a cycle. His dream then revealed Wei Shan fighting Grinning Angels with the power of Supreme Judgment, leaving Lin Yi wondering what Wei Shan would face before he woke.

• Lin Yi considered whether the Proto-Type Ashes Apostle was his future self or the Principal, then heard an eerie song as the figure vanished into white Fog.
• Lin Yi reflected on the dangers of the Dream Boundary and checked his watch, realizing he had only an hour left to dream.
• Lin Yi entered Wei Shan’s perspective and saw him drenched in rain, swelling as white Fog poured from him and golden power spread over his arms.
• Wei Shan seized a Grinning Angel by the throat and slammed it into the ground, revealing blazing eyes and power Lin Yi identified as Supreme Judgment.
• Lin Yi realized his amnesia and Wei Shan’s Claustrophobia might be protective mechanisms, and suspected Wei Shan was about to encounter something Lin Yi could not witness before waking.

Wei Shan fought off the night-walking species and Grinning Angels, but their attacks and apparent attempt to contaminate him drove him into a chaotic frenzy. Kuai Hongji and Tian Bufan arrived as Wei Shan turned on them, and Tian Bufan restrained him while Kuai Hongji dispelled his baseball bat.

• Wei Shan destroyed a Grinning Angel and used his golden aura and baseball bat to fend off waves of night-walking species near a streetlamp.
• After the streetlamp went dark, Wei Shan lured the Grinning Angels into range, made them solid with his bat, and drained one of its vital essence.
• The Grinning Angels welcomed being killed, and their attacks left Wei Shan increasingly confused, violent, and corrupted as the Forest of the Dead's Steles chanted around him.
• Lin Yi suspected a higher-ranking force was directing the Grinning Angels and realized Kuai Kuai might be connected to Wei Shan's eventual escape.
• Kuai Hongji and Tian Bufan emerged from the fog; Tian Bufan caught Wei Shan's bat as he attacked, and Kuai Hongji unraveled the weapon's mystical runes.
• Wei Shan tried to punch Kuai Hongji, but Tian Bufan stopped him.

Tian Bufan subdued the berserk Wei Shan, while Kuai Hongji marked the remaining Grinning Angels with mysterious Runes that Lin Yi learned to read. The Security Guard destroyed the Angels and their corpses, and Lin Yi’s Dream continued into a vision of Zhao Lingxiao.

• Tian Bufan threw Wei Shan to the ground, breaking the Fog’s hold on him, then urged the group to leave after Kuai Hongji dealt with the remaining Grinning Angels.
• Kuai Hongji commanded the Grinning Angels to freeze and marked each one with symbols as Lin Yi watched and wondered how he controlled them.
• The Runes formed the words “De som jager lyset i tke blir til slutt fantomer,” which Lin Yi understood as “The Fog-Shrouded Light Chaser ultimately becomes a Phantom.”
• A Security Guard arrived, smashed the Grinning Angels with his Spiked Club, absorbed their lingering power into the Old Kerosene Lamp, and vanished into the Fog.
• Lin Yi’s Dream continued after the others’ perspectives, then flickered into a vision of Zhao Lingxiao slumped on the ground.

Lin Yi discovered that Zhao Lingxiao had followed traces of his Supernatural Power and glimpsed him through the Dream Boundary. After he fled, she recovered from the Layer’s disruption but was haunted by a vision of herself as a Faceless chained sculpture, then remembered Lin Yi and became fascinated by his scent.

• Lin Yi watched Zhao Lingxiao crawl through the Layer and lick up scraps of the Corpse-Burial Root Tendrils he had left behind.
• Zhao Lingxiao followed the Supernatural Power traces to Lin Yi’s viewpoint, saw the Admonition Mystical Runes, and recognized him as a phantom connected to them.
• Lin Yi realized he had penetrated the Dream Boundary and vanished before Zhao Lingxiao could identify him.
• Zhao Lingxiao returned to her normal state but heard eerie voices and saw a chained, broken sculpture resembling herself before it disappeared.
• Zhao Lingxiao recalled Lin Yi and the Mystical Runes, sensed his lingering scent, and called it delicious.

After a dream filled with past fragments, Lin Yi woke with a clue linking the Gallery’s sinister figure to the Convenience Store Owner and discovered that the Art Building’s Layer remained visible over the Campus in daylight. Tian Bufan suspected the Gray Fog Invasion had risen in rank because Lin Yi’s adaptation and their arrival had drawn “Its” attention.

• Lin Yi wondered whether he had penetrated the Dream Boundary and altered Zhao Lingxiao’s past, then considered that his actions might have already been part of a time loop.
• Lin Yi nearly looked at the Angel through a dream fragment, but the dream space shook and swept the fragment away before he could glimpse it.
• As he woke, Lin Yi recalled an inspiration showing that the sinister figure in the Gallery resembled the Convenience Store Owner’s form.
• Lin Yi found the Ouroboros Ring hanging around his neck and returned it to the Black Wooden Box.
• Lin Yi saw the Art Building’s Layer in the sky through the window glass, though the view disappeared when Wei Liang opened the window.
• Tian Bufan concluded that the Art Building’s Layer was merging with the Campus and that Lin Yi’s adaptation and their arrival had likely attracted “Its” attention, raising the Gray Fog Invasion’s rank.

Tian Bufan explained that Lin Yi’s exposed coordinates in the Dream Boundary may have triggered the Gray Fog Invasion, while the Art Building Layer’s passage into the Campus continued to stabilize. As Lin Yi’s group prepared to leave the Dormitory, every nearby door handle began to turn, and Tian Bufan rushed them toward the Elevator Area.

• Tian Bufan told Lin Yi that the Night Watchmen had rung the bells of the Day of Destruction after Maozi reached the Art Building, and that Lin Yi’s adaptation may have exposed his coordinates to Angel.
• Lin Yi and Tian Bufan saw Grinning Angels and dangerous Black Liquid seeping through a twisted line where the Art Building Layer met the Campus Layer.
• Lin Yi’s group investigated unexplained moss in the Bathroom, packed their supplies, and prepared to leave the Dormitory.
• As the group opened their door, dormitory handles along the corridor began turning, and Tian Bufan led everyone toward the Elevator Area.
• Kuai Hongji urged nearby residents to follow them, and Tian Bufan asked Lin Yi for two tomatoes as they ran.