Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi discovered that a crack on Li Huiyuan’s back opened onto a void beneath her body, and Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji identified it as resembling the secret technique “Hidden Hide-and-Seek.” They left the cause unresolved, suspecting that an unknown being capable of the technique could disrupt their plan to liberate Difa.

• Lin Yi took Li Huiyuan to the Bookshelf Area and examined the crack on her back.
• Lin Yi found that his Perception Tentacles could pass through the crack into a darkness with nothing he could perceive beneath it.
• Lin Yi called Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji, who examined Li Huiyuan and said her condition resembled something Celestial Worthy Wei Liang of Fortune and Life could create.
• Tian Bufan explained that “Hidden Hide-and-Seek” concealed something behind a layer of reality, and said Li Huiyuan appeared to be a door painted on the world’s wall.
• Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji ruled out Wei Liang as the likely cause and warned that another being capable of the technique could greatly affect their plan.

Lin Yi discovered a zipper-like crack on Li Huiyuan’s back and learned that she had suddenly fallen stiff and unconscious just after midnight, while Wei Liang watched over her. Suspecting that her soul had entered the Gray Fog Sea and that Hide-and-Seek had been placed on her through her Dream, Lin Yi went with her and Wei Liang to the Cafeteria to keep observing her.

• Lin Yi told Li Huiyuan he had found a crack-like line on her back, and she recalled that Boss had examined her back the previous day.
• Li Huiyuan linked arms with Lin Yi and went with him to find Wei Liang, while the three sisters of Hell Rose watched them from the classroom.
• Wei Liang said Li Huiyuan had gone stiff and fallen asleep just after midnight, and Lin Yi wondered if her soul had crossed into the Gray Fog Sea.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang met Li Huiyuan and left the classroom together, followed by Zhou Yi, Girl Number Two, and Girl Number Three.
• On the way to the Cafeteria, Lin Yi watched Li Huiyuan for signs of trouble and saw the zipper-like crack on her back remain unchanged.

Lin Yi monitored the Cafeteria, discovered the Black Apron Chefs’ underground operations, and tested whether the Green Apron Chefs still pursued students after losing the “Burial Body” Root Tendrils. He confirmed they had adapted to his Tomato thefts, leaving the Campus and its Experience Students facing a more cautious threat.

• Lin Yi used his perception to inspect the Cafeteria, the Light Cocoon preparing Lao Mo’s new body, and the Green and Black Apron Chefs’ activities below.
• Lin Yi noticed the Green Apron Chefs were absent from the Student Dining Hall and watched Li Huiyuan, Zhao Lingxiao, and other familiar people arrive.
• Lin Yi asked Wei Liang to leave first, and Wei Liang’s departure triggered a Green Apron Chef to chase him.
• Lin Yi caught the Green Apron Chef, pulled its lone Tomato from its chest, and watched it freeze into a sculpture.
• Lin Yi tested the pursuit again at the Utensil Return Area, but no Green Apron Chef appeared, confirming they had changed their behavior.

Lin Yi warned Zhao Lingxiao that he could not control her unstable transformation, then she encountered Li Huiyuan through a vision of Broken Sculptures and chains. Boss intervened to pull Li Huiyuan's will back into her body, and Lin Yi recognized Boss's golden gaze as the force behind the rescue.

• Lin Yi met Zhao Lingxiao in the Student Passage, where she described her visions of Broken Sculptures and asked what he had done to her.
• Lin Yi told Zhao Lingxiao that her chance was in her own hands and left her at the Student Passage.
• Zhao Lingxiao looked into the Student Dining Hall and connected with Li Huiyuan across its layers, seeing Broken Sculptures and hearing voices that seemed to guide her toward Lin Yi.
• Li Huiyuan's will left her carapace and began turning to stone, but golden phoenix eyes sealed it in chains and dragged it back into her body.
• Lin Yi sensed the clash, watched it through his Perception Tentacles, and recognized the golden eyes as Boss's.

Lin Yi investigated the strange changes to Li Huiyuan and learned that Boss likely knew what had happened to her. After Li Huiyuan left for the Gymnasium, Mao Feiyang showed Lin Yi an artwork whose chained, cocoon-like scene reminded him of her.

• Lin Yi saw a faint glow inside the crack on Li Huiyuan's back, then concluded Boss knew what had happened to her.
• Wei Liang told Lin Yi that Li Huiyuan's body had looked like a stone sculpture while he watched over it.
• Li Huiyuan complained to Lin Yi about a strange girl singing contaminating folk songs, then teased him about wanting to see Boss and left for the Gymnasium with other Athlete Students.
• Wei Liang joked about Li Huiyuan's jealousy, and Lin Yi teased him about Xia Lian before returning to the classroom.
• Mao Feiyang gave Lin Yi a Tomato and showed him an artwork called "Between the Sins," which depicted chains binding a cocoon beneath a mechanical winch.

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang connected Vitas’s painting to the First Apostles and considered whether Lin Yi’s Broken Sculptures had been shaped by a time paradox. Lin Yi’s group set off for the Gymnasium to seek answers from Boss, but he sensed Head Teacher 040 searching for him at the Teaching Building.

• Lin Yi recognized the Mystical Runes on Vitas’s painting as “Between the Sins,” and Mao Feiyang suggested the work might be an anchor point tied to Hidden Hide-and-Seek.
• Mao Feiyang theorized that an outside influence had shaped Lin Yi’s writing into Broken Sculptures and warned that they might be part of a time paradox loop.
• Lin Yi agreed with Mao Feiyang’s proposal to visit the Gymnasium, and the group arranged to go there together.
• Lin Yi, Wei Liang, Mao Feiyang, Wei Shan, Tian Bufan, and Kuai Hongji left for the Gymnasium Area before noon.
• Lin Yi used Domain Insight to spot Head Teacher 040 emerging from Group B, Class 2, and suspected that he was looking for him.

Lin Yi met with "Head Teacher 040" after she urgently summoned him, learning that the Authorities planned to send a large batch of Experience Students into the Campus that afternoon despite the Gray Fog Invasion not being over. He used her scarce Edict to send a warning, with Kuai Hongji taking control and writing a threatening message to Xiao Huang.

• "Head Teacher 040" spotted Lin Yi from afar and told him the Authorities planned to send many Experience Students into the Campus that afternoon.
• Lin Yi and "Head Teacher 040" discussed the danger of sending the students into the Campus while the Gray Fog Invasion continued, and he agreed to try contacting the Authorities through her Edict.
• Lin Yi entered the Group B Class 2 Teachers' Office with "Head Teacher 040" and learned that Edicts were scarce and difficult to use.
• Kuai Hongji took control of Lin Yi's body and wrote a message demanding that Xiao Huang recall the Experience Students or risk the Campus being blown up.

Lin Yi crossed into the Gymnasium Area and sensed that its walls were fragments of a ship, while Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji revealed that the Campus blueprints had been altered toward an Ark design. They suspected Difa, possibly the Boss, had planned the Campus’s construction long ago, leaving Lin Yi to consider whether she had prepared it as a defense.

• Kuai Hongji explained that the Time Council was made real by the meaning Wei Liang gave it, then withdrew from Lin Yi’s Carapace.
• Lin Yi returned the completed Edict to Head Teacher 040, who expected a reply that afternoon, and left for the Gymnasium.
• Wei Liang and the others joked about Boss and Mao Feiyang’s attempt to visit the School Doctor before Tian Bufan led them toward the Gymnasium Area.
• Lin Yi crossed the Layer into the Gymnasium Area and briefly perceived its walls assembling from fragments, revealing what looked like part of a ship’s hull.
• Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji said the Campus blueprints had been altered toward an Ark design and suggested Difa might have modified them before the Campus was built.

Lin Yi and his companions debated whether Boss or Li Huiyuan was the Law-Crafting Master before encountering Athlete Students trapped by contamination and Wrathful Angels. As Lin Yi rushed to help, Li Huiyuan remained transfixed by visions of chains and seized an attacking angel’s staff, revealing extraordinary strength.

• Wei Liang advised Lin Yi to act normally and watch whether Boss showed jealousy when Li Huiyuan got close to him.
• The group found twelve Athlete Students sinking into distorted layers as Wrathful Angels awakened and attacked them.
• Wei Liang and Tian Bufan discussed Boss, Li Huiyuan, Xia Lian, and a painting called “Between the Sins.”
• Li Huiyuan stared blankly at apparent chains in her golden eyes while a Wrathful Angel attacked her.
• Li Huiyuan caught the Wrathful Angel’s staff and stopped its momentum with her bare hand.

Li Huiyuan fought off Wrathful Angels while contaminated by the Forest of the Dead's Steles, and Lin Yi rescued her from the distorted layer. Back at the Campus, Lin Yi sensed that the Gymnasium was alive and used his perception to uncover its hidden structure.

• Li Huiyuan caught a Wrathful Angel's strike and defeated it and the others that attacked her, while powder from their bodies settled on her.
• The Forest of the Dead's Steles unleashed broken sculptures and contamination, but Lin Yi smoothed out the distorted layer and sent the Athlete Students toward the Gymnasium.
• Lin Yi found Li Huiyuan bound in chains, awakened her, and carried her back to the Campus as a meteor struck the Forest of the Dead's Steles.
• Mao Feiyang, Tian Bufan, Kuai Hongji, and Wei Liang continued toward the Gymnasium ahead of Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan.
• Lin Yi sensed that the Gymnasium was alive, then used his Perception Tentacles to reveal that its deeper layers contained a cyberpunk-style mechanical structure.

Lin Yi examined the Gymnasium’s flesh-and-crystal structure, its chained Gym Teachers, and the contaminated prisoners in Basement Level One. A flash of Inspiration led him into a deeper prison, where he found a chained Li Huiyuan and questioned whether the Li Huiyuan beside him was an impostor.

• Lin Yi found eight chained Gym Teachers in the Gym Office and suspected that the Dawn Walkers followed a pathway connected to the Butcher.
• Lin Yi examined Basement Level One and saw Athlete Students, Gym Teachers, and mutated Forerunners chained in cells while Feather Pupils released contamination.
• Lin Yi followed a sudden Inspiration beyond the familiar dungeon into a vast prison hidden deeper within the Gymnasium.
• Lin Yi saw Li Huiyuan chained in the prison, though he had been traveling with another Li Huiyuan.
• Lin Yi checked that his watch showed 12:56 and wondered whether the chained Li Huiyuan had been trapped there all along.

Lin Yi explored the Gymnasium’s third floor and discovered that its Infirmary was an independent space guarded by the School Doctor, who wanted Kuai Hongji to visit her. He then examined the Swimming Hall and suspected that its pool connected to the Black Sea and might be the source of the Gymnasium’s moisture and fog.

• Lin Yi found contaminated Green Apron Chef fragments in the Gymnasium’s stairwell and deduced that they could slowly turn Athlete Students into Green Apron Chefs.
• Lin Yi entered the Athlete Students’ third-floor activity area and was pulled through the Infirmary door into a strange space filled with indistinguishable doors.
• The elderly School Doctor identified herself and asked Kuai Hongji to come see her, threatening to put the Gymnasium over Lin Yi’s head if he refused.
• The School Doctor’s power expelled Lin Yi from the Infirmary, and Kuai Hongji disappeared without explaining his connection to her.
• Lin Yi inspected the Swimming Hall and discovered that its pool connected through the layers to the Black Sea, leading him to suspect it caused the Gymnasium’s moisture and fog.

Lin Yi returned to the Gymnasium, where he noticed that many Old Kerosene Lamps had been renewed after an invasion by Grinning Angels. Boss summoned him for a private walk, while Wei Liang and Wei Shan suspected that she was someone they had known before.

• Lin Yi returned to his Original Body, then went with Li Huiyuan to the Gymnasium and met the seven Athlete Students he had rescued.
• Lin Yi examined the Old Kerosene Lamps and found sand on several lamps that had grown brighter; Wei Shan said a large group of Grinning Angels had invaded the Gymnasium the day before.
• Boss appeared on the second floor, called Lin Yi upstairs, and asked him to wait while she changed so they could talk privately.
• Boss left the Gymnasium with Lin Yi, telling the others not to follow, while Li Huiyuan watched them go with concern.
• After Boss and Lin Yi left, Wei Shan said he was almost certain Boss was a woman they had known before, and Wei Liang admitted he still doubted it because her body had changed so much.

Boss told Lin Yi how she emerged from a strange light cocoon, met the Principal, and helped shape the Campus. She revealed that Lin Yi’s contamination and awakened memories connected him to her past, then explained how she had arranged the Campus’s defenses for a larger purpose.

• Boss led Lin Yi into a secluded forest and showed him the light cocoon where her earliest memories began.
• Boss recounted waking from the cocoon, finding the Principal with the HX-S1 blueprints, and modifying the plans before learning his identity.
• Boss explained that she had become the first Athlete Student and taken the name Boss, while the Principal alone knew her secret.
• Boss told Lin Yi that she recognized his familiar scent and discovered he could generate primal contamination, leading her to suspect he was the person in her fragmented memories.
• Boss described dismantling the Hall of Heroes, distributing its parts across the Campus, placing the Mourners’ carapaces as Security Guards, and shaping the Gymnasium into a training and defensive position.

Lin Yi learned that Boss had hidden the Ark throughout the Campus and questioned him about the plan to face the Root. After Tian Bufan supplied the plan’s final steps, Boss revealed that she had arranged for many Experience Students to enter the school that day.

• Lin Yi realized the Campus buildings might be parts of the Ark, dismantled and hidden until they could be reassembled.
• Boss asked when Lin Yi planned to act, and Lin Yi admitted he knew almost nothing about the plan.
• Lin Yi summoned Tian Bufan’s consciousness, who told him the plan was to take control of the Campus, summon the Principal, and face the Root.
• Lin Yi told Boss that he, the Butcher, and Boss would set out in the Ark for the Gray Fog Sea once the Principal returned.
• Boss said she had already notified the Authorities to send many Experience Students into the school that day, and teased Lin Yi about his closeness to the Head Teacher.

Boss explained how Li Huiyuan’s divided will and supernatural carapace came to be, and how her transformation was tied to Lin Yi and possibly a time paradox. After Lin Yi left, Boss revealed that another voice within her wanted to embrace him, while Boss herself argued with that voice about their shared past and identity.

• Boss told Lin Yi that Experience Students anchored the Campus and made the Ark more stable in the Gray Fog Sea.
• Boss explained that Li Huiyuan’s original body and will remained in the Gymnasium’s Basement, while a separated portion inhabited a carapace and might become a new kind of Mourner.
• Boss said Li Huiyuan’s will had used Will Leap to reach the Art Building and might have heard calls from different points in time, while Lin Yi admitted he had also been using Will Leap there.
• Boss hugged Lin Yi from behind, called him Big Brother Lin Yi, then pushed him away and told him to return to the Gymnasium without looking back.
• After Lin Yi left, Boss’s bashful side said she had wanted to hug him, and Boss argued with that voice about whether they had dissociative identity disorder and whether she was ready to accept her past.

Lin Yi learned more about the plan to take control of the Campus and followed Boss and Li Huiyuan to the Giant Dome for a run. On the way, Boss noticed something in Lin Yi’s shadow, and she concluded that the Snake Shadow might be contamination from the Gray Fog Sea; she warned that contact with it could leave a lasting connection.

• Boss privately reflected on her feelings for Lin Yi, while Mao Feiyang teased Lin Yi about her jealousy and Tian Bufan explained that the first step of the Three-Step Plan was to explore the Campus and use the Mystical Rune Matrix to control it.
• Lin Yi returned to the Gymnasium, where Li Huiyuan invited him swimming, but Boss arrived and ordered him and Li Huiyuan to run in the Giant Dome.
• Wei Liang declined to join them, while Wei Shan left to look for a suitable weapon and Wei Liang soon went his own way.
• On the passage to the Giant Dome, Lin Yi told Boss and Li Huiyuan about his Visual Hallucinations of the Quartermaster and a giant Snake Shadow in the Black Sea.
• Boss noticed something hiding in Lin Yi’s shadow, but the Shadow of the Great Serpent denied being the one Lin Yi had seen in the Black Sea.
• Boss suspected the Snake Shadow was contamination from the Gray Fog Sea and told Lin Yi to watch for it during the run, warning that she could pull him back but might not be able to sever a connection afterward.

Boss took Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan to the Giant Dome for his final training session, intending to push him through another near-death experience so he could adapt to the Angel’s aura and the Root. After repeatedly beating Lin Yi to death, she told Li Huiyuan to absorb the aura he was giving off.

• Boss explained that Lin Yi should encounter traces of the Angel’s aura before they set out to sea, since the Angel and the Root would await them there.
• At the Giant Dome, Li Huiyuan noticed Lin Yi’s translucent watch, and Boss identified it as the face of the Time Compass.
• Boss said Lin Yi’s recovery from near-death had been raising his limits and announced that she would take him as close to death as she could bring him back from.
• Lin Yi angered Boss by comparing her pants to the Head Teacher’s uniform, and Boss kicked him across the turf.
• Li Huiyuan complained that Lin Yi had touched her feet and looked at the Head Teacher’s stockings, prompting Boss to beat Lin Yi again.
• Boss struck Lin Yi’s heart and killed him, then told Li Huiyuan to approach his body and absorb its aura from a tolerable distance.

After Lin Yi was struck down, his will sank into a strange state while Li Huiyuan absorbed his aura and Supernatural Trait. Boss confronted the Shadow of the Great Serpent, learned he had agreed to hold off the “Angel,” and the chapter left Mao Feiyang and Kuai Hongji arriving unseen on the Gymnasium’s third floor.

• Lin Yi’s will sank beneath Green Turf and entered a misty state, where he spotted Kuai Kuai and Maozi near what seemed to be the Infirmary.
• Li Huiyuan resisted the urge to grope Lin Yi, then sat five meters away and absorbed his aura and adaptation-based Supernatural Trait until the sensation overwhelmed her.
• Boss denied caring about Lin Yi while the Law-Crafting Master teased her, then questioned the Shadow of the Great Serpent as he emerged from Lin Yi’s shadow.
• Boss forced the Shadow of the Great Serpent to reveal that he had agreed to hold off the “Angel” and give the others time to move forward.
• Mao Feiyang led a reluctant Kuai Hongji to the Gymnasium’s third floor, where athlete students sensed someone arriving but could not see them.

Kuai Hongji reunited with the School Doctor, who mistook him for her long-lost teacher and recounted her role in preserving the Ark’s Design Plan and building the Campus. When she revealed that a curse of time had aged her, Kuai Hongji promised to save her after their mission.

• Mao Feiyang concealed Kuai Hongji and himself from the Athlete Students and led Kuai Hongji to the Infirmary.
• The School Doctor welcomed Kuai Hongji as her teacher, and Lin Yi secretly listened from within Kuai Hongji’s will.
• The School Doctor explained that after the Black Moon Cataclysm she guarded the Design Plan, helped the Principal construct the Campus, and tracked the Demon Puppet Master’s successor.
• The School Doctor said she had spent years searching for her teachers and that her longing had caused a curse of time to age her rapidly.
• Kuai Hongji recognized the School Doctor’s devotion and firmly promised to find a way to remove the curse after the mission.