Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi discovered that the Cafeteria’s Other Passage connected to another layer and that the explosion at Meal Window No. 10 had weakened the Green Apron Chefs’ presence. He collected tomatoes from a familiar Green Apron Chef, while Wei Shan’s encounter with a petrified chef revealed a blue layer beneath its cracked surface.

• Lin Yi was delighted to find that Lao Mo had recovered enough to speak, then joined Wei Shan and Wei Liang for a meal in the reopened Student Dining Hall.
• Lin Yi realized the Other Passage connected different Cafeteria layers and that the explosion at Meal Window No. 10 had disrupted the Green Apron Chefs’ layer.
• Lin Yi spotted a faint Green Apron Chef, recognized it as the one from the previous day, and exchanged his yogurt for tomatoes until he had a trayful.
• Wei Shan demanded a tomato, reached through the layer to take one from the Green Apron Chef, and left it petrified.
• Wei Shan accidentally cracked the chef sculpture with his tray, revealing blue beneath it, and told Lin Yi that turning back into a Blue Apron Chef required certain prerequisites.

Lin Yi and Wei Shan lured Green Apron Chefs out of Meal Window No. 10, discovered they were made from the Burial Body’s roots, and used their remains to draw creatures out of the shadows. As Lin Yi continued through the increasingly strange Campus, he wondered whether the Cafeteria’s omission from their plan was connected to the Convenience Store Owner.

• Lin Yi and Wei Shan waited by the Plate Return Area for the Green Apron Chefs to emerge from Meal Window No. 10, while Wei Liang left the Student Dining Hall.
• Root tentacles emerged from the warped window and formed Green Apron Chefs, which Lin Yi and Wei Shan caught and tore apart, finding no hearts or tomatoes inside.
• Lin Yi tossed a Green Apron Chef’s arm into the darkness, drawing Weird Art Students (Fanatics) and Impersonator Classmates to fight over it; he and Wei Shan then carried away bundles of spoils.
• Lao Mo warned Lin Yi to be careful of the Burial Body’s contamination when Lin Yi offered him a tomato.
• Lin Yi used Domain Insight to perceive strange Layers beneath the Student Passage and wondered whether the Campus had changed or his Cognition had deepened.
• Lin Yi asked Wei Shan whether leaving the Cafeteria out of their plan might prevent a change in the Convenience Store Owner, but Wei Shan said Lin Yi might be overthinking it.

Lin Yi left the Cafeteria area troubled by the mysteries surrounding the Convenience Store Owner, then discovered that Zhao Lingxiao was developing an ominous connection to him and carrying ashes. In the Teaching Building area, he spotted the hidden mass of night-walking species and impersonator sculptures in the Wooded Belt, and Tian Bufan unexpectedly answered his mental call.

• Lin Yi and Wei Shan returned the Cafeteria Rules, then left with Wei Liang as Lin Yi pondered the ashes residue on the Chef sculptures and grew suspicious of the Convenience Store Owner.
• Lin Yi sensed Zhao Lingxiao approaching and felt a thread-like connection to her; after she passed him, he detected ashes inside her and feared she was becoming an ashes apostle and Fog-Shrouded Light Chaser.
• Lin Yi struggled with the Teaching Building area's disorienting scenery and concluded that the Campus's seven-day experience brought increasingly severe visual hallucinations.
• Lin Yi used Domain Insight to find night-walking species and impersonator sculptures gathered as a huge mass beneath the Wooded Belt's layers.
• Lin Yi called out to Tian Bufan in his mind, initially received no answer, then heard Tian Bufan respond, "Lao Lin, I'm here."

Lin Yi discovered that the Teaching Building shared the Cafeteria’s strange, parasitized nature and suspected that every Campus building combined architecture with flesh. He told Head Teacher 040 his theory, and her startled response suggested he had uncovered something significant.

• Lin Yi contacted Tian Bufan, who explained that the Night-Walking Species and Sculpture Phalanx were assembling into modules of a larger Matrix.
• At the Teaching Building, Lin Yi sensed that its walls were made from Supernatural Substance and Powder, then felt them bite his hand.
• Lin Yi theorized that the Teaching Building, Gymnasium, Dormitory Building, and perhaps every Campus building were hybrids of flesh and architecture.
• Lin Yi asked Head Teacher 040 about the Campus’s construction and cautiously told her that the Teaching Building resembled the Cafeteria’s relationship with the Burial Body.
• Lin Yi accidentally revealed that his Cognition of the world differed from Head Teacher 040’s, then continued explaining his theory; Head Teacher 040 suddenly exclaimed that she understood.

Lin Yi discussed the Teaching Building’s possible living, Layer-based nature with Head Teacher 040 and developed a theory about how the Campus was constructed and stabilized. On his way to the Bathroom, he discovered he could manipulate the layered mechanism of another class’s door, then observed how Purebred Night-Walking Species were embedded in the Stairwell walls.

• Head Teacher 040 explained that the Teaching Building seemed alive and changed form as it sank into or emerged from the Layer during anomalies.
• Lin Yi theorized that Campus buildings had been pulled from Layers and that cognition anchors kept the Campus from being dragged back into them.
• Lin Yi approached Group B Class 1’s door and used his supernatural power to loosen its layered teeth, realizing he was opening it the way the Proto-Type Ashes Apostles had.
• Chen Yu came out through the door and asked whether Lin Yi had noticed anything, but Lin Yi denied seeing anything and continued toward the Bathroom.
• Lin Yi used his Visual Domain to observe Purebred Night-Walking Species lodged in the Stairwell walls and left them alone.

Lin Yi discovered that the Grinning Angels were hidden in another layer inside the elevator area and called on Wei Shan to fight them. With Wei Shan suppressing one Angel, Lin Yi began dismantling it while the other four became trapped by their desire for the ashes inside him.

• Lin Yi opened the elevator and saw Night-Walking Species and Impersonator Classmates packed inside, then used Domain Insight to spot ash residue on them.
• Lin Yi perceived the layer beneath the elevator area and found four Grinning Angel statues, while a fifth appeared beside him.
• Lin Yi called Wei Shan, who took control of his body and used golden aura to suppress a Grinning Angel.
• Wei Shan told Lin Yi to dismantle the immobilized Angel, and Lin Yi removed its head while the other four were drawn to the ashes inside him.

Lin Yi dismantled five Grinning Angels, discovered Ashes Crystals inside them, and recovered an Old Kerosene Lamp from one. He investigated the Bathroom's Door Attribute and found Wei Liang's Baseball Cap lodged in a stall drain.

• Lin Yi dismantled the Grinning Angels and found an Ashes Crystal in each one, which caused their bodies to petrify.
• Lin Yi removed the Ashes Crystal from the Grinning Angel holding an Hourglass, revealing an Old Kerosene Lamp inside.
• Lin Yi crushed the remaining sculpture fragments, left the Elevator Area, and headed to the Bathroom before PE.
• Lin Yi sensed the Bathroom's Door Attribute and discovered that the area beneath it was a void like the realm beneath the Layer Rift.
• Lin Yi used his Supernatural Power to open a tightly shut stall and found Wei Liang's Baseball Cap lodged at the drain.

Lin Yi discovered that the Baseball Cap concealed a Layer filled with countless dead versions of Wei Liang, whose words revealed that they had repeatedly failed inside the Campus. He suspected Wei Liang had died to save him across a time loop, but the corpses offered no clear way to escape the cycle.

• Lin Yi separated the bathroom stall from the Bathroom by locking its bolt and traced Wei Liang's eerie calls to the Baseball Cap.
• Lin Yi used Domain Insight and his Perception Tentacles to unfold the Layer inside the cap and found countless corpses bearing Wei Liang's face.
• The corpses called Lin Yi “Lao Lin” and spoke of repeated failures, possible escape plans, and whether Boss should die.
• Lin Yi recalled Tian Bufan's warning about Wei Liang saving him once and deduced that the many supposed Impersonator Wei Liangs might be real versions of Wei Liang who had died in past loops.
• Lin Yi asked the corpses for advice on avoiding failure, and they told him fate repeated itself unless he could break out.

Lin Yi escaped the Bathroom layer and headed to the Gymnasium with Wei Liang and Wei Shan, carrying the Old Kerosene Lamp. At the Gymnasium boundary, Lin Yi noticed the Art Building remained visible in the sky and questioned whether the Notice Board’s warning to “look up” referred to literally raising his head.

• Lin Yi rejected the Impersonator Wei Liangs’ suggestion to let Boss die, then escaped the Bathroom layer and found that less than ten minutes had passed.
• Lin Yi met Wei Liang and Wei Shan, and Wei Shan took the Old Kerosene Lamp after a brief spark flickered from it.
• Lin Yi, Wei Liang, and Wei Shan left Teaching Building B for PE and saw the Art Building layer and the Black Sea overlapping the sky.
• Lin Yi entered the Gymnasium area and initially saw it as nearly dark, but closing and reopening his eyes made it appear only heavily overcast.
• Lin Yi reread the Notice Board’s warning about looking up and realized the Art Building was still visible whenever he raised his head.

Lin Yi's Dreambuilding vision revealed how the Black Sea and the Campus Layer intertwined, along with a vast wall separating them, before he escaped the sea's summons and returned to his body. He and Wei Liang and Wei Shan continued toward the Gymnasium, where they spotted other Experience Students ahead.

• Lin Yi realized the Art Building Layer could have always existed beyond ordinary perception, then noticed seawater dripping from the dark sky as the layers pressed together.
• Lin Yi's Visual Domain carried his mind to the horizon, where he saw the Black Sea meet the wooded belt and a massive wall running between the Art Building Layer and reality.
• The Black Sea's distant song drew Lin Yi toward an Angel, and malformed Grinning Angels followed his path toward the Campus Layer.
• The Great Serpent's shadow devoured the Grinning Angels, and Lin Yi returned to his body after only a little over a minute of Dreambuilding.
• Lin Yi, Wei Liang, and Wei Shan hurried toward the Gymnasium through strong winds, then saw several Experience Students ahead.

Lin Yi, Wei Liang, and Wei Shan crossed dangerous Layers on their way to the Gymnasium, where they passed Lu Zhao’s impersonator sculpture. After Su Yao accidentally pulled Wei Liang into her Layer, she used the escape route he revealed to rescue her team; at the Gymnasium, Xia Lian confronted Lin Yi and Wei Liang about their lateness.

• Lin Yi and his companions crossed the stormy Layer and spotted the captain’s group struggling through it, but tried to pass without being noticed.
• Su Yao grabbed Wei Liang’s uniform hem, and he helped her escape the dangerous Layer before she realized she could pull her chained teammates to safety.
• Lin Yi, Wei Liang, and Wei Shan continued toward the Gymnasium, passing Lu Zhao’s dead body, which had become an impersonator sculpture.
• The trio entered the Gymnasium, and Wei Liang joked that the guards had looked at them with respect.
• Xia Lian strode up to Lin Yi and Wei Liang, demanded to know what had taken them so long, and dragged Wei Liang back when he tried to slip away.

Lin Yi learned that Li Huiyuan had left the Gymnasium after hearing what she believed was his voice and returned badly injured. She revealed that Boss said she carried Lin Yi’s ashes, which Lin Yi sensed powering a strange force within her, leaving him stunned and unsure how they had gotten there.

• Xia Lian told Lin Yi that Li Huiyuan had left the Gymnasium during the Gray Fog Invasion and returned badly injured, but was now safe with Boss.
• Lin Yi discovered that his Perception Tentacles could open a Wardrobe door, then noticed a familiar scent as he left the Changing Room.
• Wei Liang emerged from the shower room with a dirty Gymnastics Uniform and headed to the Gymnastics Hall.
• Lin Yi met Li Huiyuan and asked about her injury, and she admitted she had left after hearing what sounded like his voice.
• Li Huiyuan said Boss had told her she carried Lin Yi’s ashes, and Lin Yi sensed concentrated ashes powering a strange force inside her.

Lin Yi learned that Li Huiyuan had followed a voice calling her from the Art Building and become an Ashes Apostle, while Boss rescued her and consumed her ashes. Boss suspected that Lin Yi’s future self had controlled Li Huiyuan and revealed how drastically Lin Yi’s abilities had advanced between their three meetings.

• Li Huiyuan told Lin Yi that a voice resembling his had called her toward the Art Building, where vortices injured her before Boss rescued her.
• Lin Yi suspected that his future self had crossed the dream boundary to call Li Huiyuan, but he could not reach Maozi for an explanation.
• Boss confirmed that Lin Yi had repaired the City Wall, and Lin Yi admitted it to her.
• Boss revealed that she had found Li Huiyuan burning as an Ashes Apostle and consumed her ashes to restore her, while Li Huiyuan remembered none of it.
• Boss described seeing a strange, evil version of Lin Yi at the Art Building and compared Lin Yi’s rapid progress across their three meetings.

Boss tested Lin Yi by kicking him apart, revealing that his recovery trait had reached the legendary Frenzied Healing. Lin Yi rebuilt his body from scattered pieces and discovered he might be unable to die.

• Boss cleared the training area and said she would test Lin Yi by having him take one kick.
• Lin Yi tried to dodge Boss with Asura Flash, but she blocked his escape and struck him with overwhelming force.
• Boss's kick shattered Lin Yi's flesh and left only his Golden Skeletal Body, terrifying Li Huiyuan and the watching Athlete Students.
• Boss told the students that Lin Yi was demonstrating the ultimate form of the Physical Education Department's recovery trait, which Little Zhouzi identified as Frenzied Healing.
• Lin Yi watched his scattered flesh return as pixel-like pieces, then slowly rebuilt his body and regrew his face.

Lin Yi recovered from Boss’s attack and learned that he had mastered powerful abilities unusually quickly, while Boss questioned his memories and assessed his strength. After Lin Yi revealed that the Authorities had sent him to find the Principal’s Notebook, Boss said she had never heard of one but confirmed he could search the Principal’s Office near the Stargazing Platform.

• Lin Yi recovered from being blown apart, and Boss told the Athlete Students to study his transformation and warned him not to doubt his existence.
• Boss identified Lin Yi’s abilities as frenzied healing and transboundary perception, then placed his strength below a Security Guard and far beneath the Night Watchman.
• The Shadow of the Great Serpent and Tian Bufan urged Lin Yi to tell Boss the truth and ask her for harsh training.
• Lin Yi told Boss that the Authorities had sent him to retrieve the Principal’s Notebook because the Campus was nearing collapse.
• Boss said she had never heard of the Notebook but agreed Lin Yi could search the Principal’s Office, which Lin Yi believed was near the Stargazing Platform.

Boss explained how Lin Yi could locate the Principal’s Office and offered two ways to improve his strength, then began training him by repeatedly shattering and restoring his body. As Lin Yi’s body grew tougher, Li Huiyuan absorbed his aura and began showing signs of the Little Girl’s influence, while Boss’s thirteenth strike finally cracked Lin Yi’s Golden Skeletal Body.

• Boss told Lin Yi that the Principal’s Office could appear near the Stargazing Platform and described training methods based on repeatedly bringing him near death or using gentler adaptation training.
• Lin Yi chose the second method, but Boss said she would first keep striking him while she could still control her strength.
• Xia Lian went looking for Wei Liang, while Boss warned Li Huiyuan about her impulse to attack and instructed her to absorb Lin Yi’s aura from a safe distance.
• Boss repeatedly kicked Lin Yi apart as he recovered, and Li Huiyuan absorbed his aura until golden runes appeared on her arm and she murmured a nursery rhyme about splitting her big brother apart.
• On Boss’s thirteenth strike, Lin Yi stayed intact, but he heard a crack and realized her kick had briefly shattered his Golden Skeletal Body.

Lin Yi finished Boss’s training and discovered that Li Huiyuan had undergone a strange transformation connected to him, then sensed ice shards leaking from a shower stall in another layer. After waiting for Boss and Li Huiyuan, he learned that whatever had happened to Li Huiyuan in the Women’s Changing Room was connected to him.

• Boss ended Lin Yi’s kick training, sent him to shower, and told him to meet her at the Gymnastics Hall entrance before heading to the Swimming Hall.
• Boss took Li Huiyuan to the Women’s Changing Room to investigate her apparent transformation, while Lin Yi sensed a new, familiar aura from her and briefly lost consciousness after hearing the Divine Artisan’s hammer.
• Lin Yi found ice shards spreading from another shower stall in a separate layer, but left the area to report the discovery to Boss.
• While waiting for Boss, Lin Yi considered the Gymnasium’s mysteries, the Authorities, and the Old Kerosene Lamps’ power against the Grinning Angel.
• Boss and Li Huiyuan emerged from the Women’s Changing Room, and Li Huiyuan told Lin Yi he had to take full responsibility as Boss indicated her raised left hand.

Lin Yi discovered that Li Huiyuan had manifested a copy of his Mystical Rune Steel Saw, and Boss explained that the rune had passed to her through his Contamination. After seeing a mysterious Basement that Li Huiyuan could not perceive, Lin Yi experienced a vision of Little Girl and strange changing worlds, leaving Li Huiyuan worried that he had seen something beyond their Layer.

• Li Huiyuan summoned a miniature Mystical Rune Steel Saw from a golden Mystical Rune on her arm, and Boss said she had absorbed the rune through Lin Yi's Contamination.
• Lin Yi told Boss about Little Girl branding him with the rune and described her as a possible projection of a Law-Crafting Master, while Boss admitted the name seemed both familiar and unfamiliar to her.
• Boss sent Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan to the Swimming Hall while she investigated the Changing Room's Shower Area, where Lin Yi had found ice fragments and a shower stall outside the Layer.
• Lin Yi spotted what appeared to be a staircase leading to the Gymnasium's Basement, but Li Huiyuan could not see it and did not recognize any basement there.
• As Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan walked toward the Swimming Hall, Lin Yi heard strange sounds and saw Little Girl amid shifting visions before returning to normal when Li Huiyuan called to him.
• Li Huiyuan said she suspected Lin Yi had seen something beyond their Layer, while Lin Yi considered her growing Cognition and possible future as a Transcendent student or Ashes Apostle.

Lin Yi fell into a Black Sea layer while waiting at the Swimming Hall and heard a new Admonition before Li Huiyuan woke him. Boss identified the episode as dreambuilding and warned that Lin Yi’s body and will had become dangerously unsynchronized.

• Lin Yi waited by the pool for Li Huiyuan, then became absorbed in the water and entered a layer where the Swimming Hall became a Black Sea.
• Broken sculptures in the black tide surrounded Lin Yi as he heard and began understanding new Admonition text.
• Li Huiyuan found Lin Yi standing chest-deep in the real pool and shook him awake; he realized only minutes had passed outside the layer.
• Lin Yi told Li Huiyuan about the broken sculptures, and she said she had experienced sleepwalking after hearing his voice the previous night.
• Boss arrived and explained that Lin Yi had likely experienced dreambuilding, with his will entering the layer before his body, leaving him vulnerable if his will died there.

Lin Yi learned that Boss had never heard of the Broken Sculptures and began a dangerous Swimming Pool training meant to develop his ability to perceive higher dimensions. As Lin Yi swam toward an apparently unreachable destination, Boss explained the pool’s connection to the Black Sea and suspected that his strange behavior came from unconscious Dreambuilding.

• Lin Yi told Boss about the chained Broken Sculptures and their calls, but Boss said she had never heard of anything like them and wondered whether the problem lay with Lin Yi or something around him.
• Boss ordered Lin Yi to swim without goggles or a cap until he ran out of strength, promising to rescue him before he drowned and warning that he would not reach the other side.
• Boss explained that prolonged exposure to the pool could introduce Primal Contamination, deepen Lin Yi’s Contamination, and send him further down the Blue-Type path.
• Boss revealed that the Swimming Pool was a folded portion of the Black Sea and that its apparent size concealed an infinite higher-dimensional sea accessible through deeper Cognition.
• Boss said Lin Yi’s will could penetrate higher dimensions through Dream Studies, and she was surprised to hear from Li Huiyuan that he had shown signs of Dreambuilding earlier.