Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi and Tian Bufan discussed Li Huiyuan’s contamination and proposed using her to test campus rules, while also developing theories about cognition and the Blue Apron Chef. As they returned to the Teaching Building, Li Huiyuan began experiencing a strange transformation in the world around her.

• Lin Yi realized the Blue Apron Chef’s stare suggested that Li Huiyuan, and possibly the others, had little time to live because of contamination.
• Tian Bufan explained that Maozi’s contamination threatened everyone and proposed using Li Huiyuan as a pawn to test campus rules; Li Huiyuan asked to speak with the Head Teacher about her missing Student ID before deciding.
• Lin Yi described cognition as a glass skywalk that let people perceive layers hidden from Experience Students, and Tian Bufan offered a theory about limited perception and false reflections.
• As the group returned toward the Teaching Building, Li Huiyuan felt increasingly cold and noticed frost on her arms, darkened skies, and a pebble road that seemed to become a rocky shore.

Li Huiyuan lost her Student ID and nearly followed a ghostly voice off the Pebble Road, leading Lin Yi to suspect that the ID was necessary for an Experience Student’s safe state. After reporting the loss to Head Teacher 040, Lin Yi noticed the corridor wall might conceal clues about how the school’s abnormal layers distorted space.

• A ghostly presence placed an icy hand on Li Huiyuan’s shoulder and tried to lure her into turning around, but Lin Yi shook her back to awareness before Wei Shan could slap her.
• Lin Yi deduced that Li Huiyuan had lost her Student ID and possibly the safe state associated with it, then briefly perceived green fog and a bright mark on her back.
• Lin Yi, Li Huiyuan, and Wei Liang returned to Teaching Building B, where Li Huiyuan reported her missing Student ID to Head Teacher 040, who brought her into the office.
• While waiting outside the office, Lin Yi felt an unexplained texture through the smooth corridor wall and realized its lack of scratches might relate to the school’s abnormal layers and spatial distortions.

Lin Yi pieced together how contamination might turn dead students into moving sculptures and suspected the nonhuman classmates were dead, while identifying a possible route to the Art Building. The Long Winter then arrived, and an Eldritch Abomination seemed to notice him as he fell into another layer and heard the ancient cries again.

• Lin Yi suspected the Cafeteria concealed a nest and other mysteries, but decided to focus on exploring the Teaching Building and rescuing Maozi.
• Lin Yi briefly saw sculptures, twisted creatures, and a familiar new student in the fog of the Wooded Belt.
• Lin Yi reasoned that Little Genius had been contaminated, killed, and transformed into a sculpture, and considered that the nonhuman classmates might all be dead.
• Lin Yi connected Little Genius’s journey along the Nonexistent Road to the seaside and the nonexistent castle, which he suspected was the Art Building.
• Lin Yi began breathing icy vapor as frost spread across the corridor, and the Long Winter plunged the campus into darkness and gray fog.
• Lin Yi realized his consciousness had fallen into another layer, but his usual recitation could not pull him back as ancient cries sounded around him.

Lin Yi was pulled back from a dangerous trance by a vision of Wei Shan, then learned that Li Huiyuan had lost her Student ID and needed time to decide what to do. After Li Huiyuan explained that Head Teacher 040 had told her to buy a Student Commemorative Coin, Lin Yi suspected it could shift her onto the Art Student path.

• A prayer drew Lin Yi into a frozen darkness until a vision of Wei Shan called him back, and Lin Yi and Wei Liang crashed to the floor as he regained awareness.
• Wei Liang insisted Wei Shan had merely passed by, while Lin Yi realized he had sleepwalked toward the bathroom during his trance.
• Li Huiyuan returned from speaking with Head Teacher 040 and asked Lin Yi to wait until after dinner for her decision.
• In the classroom, Li Huiyuan explained that losing her Student ID had left her unable to use services that required it, and Head Teacher 040 had advised her to buy a Student Commemorative Coin.
• Lin Yi connected the coin to Art Student identity and suspected it could lead Li Huiyuan onto the Art Department route.

Lin Yi investigated Li Huiyuan’s contamination and discovered a hair-thin wound on her back that released green vapor, along with a strange fragment hidden beneath her tank top. Wei Liang returned and mistook their examination for an intimate encounter.

• Li Huiyuan told Lin Yi that the Head Teacher had instructed her to obtain a free Student Commemorative Coin at the Convenience Store before eating and to return to the Head Teacher’s office afterward.
• Lin Yi explained Contamination to Li Huiyuan, then asked to examine her back again and spotted a faint, hair-thin line.
• When Lin Yi touched the line, Li Huiyuan’s back opened into a wound that released eerie green vapor, and he noticed a green light beneath her tank top.
• Lin Yi pulled at Li Huiyuan’s tank top, releasing a cloud of green smoke that sunlight broke into green and white particles, and found a tiny plaster-like fragment inside.
• Li Huiyuan’s back wound faded but remained, and Wei Liang arrived, saw Lin Yi examining her, and accused them of secretly practicing the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

Lin Yi investigated the strange sensations around Group B Class 1 and briefly saw eerie markings on its door and a figure watching him from the corridor. He wondered whether the figure had targeted him before, then approached the classroom door despite Wei Liang’s alarm.

• Lin Yi realized that Li Huiyuan could think in the classroom because sunlight and her altered cognition helped protect her from cognitive collapse.
• Li Huiyuan discovered that Wei Liang had handed her several erotic manga, while Lin Yi recorded his observations in a notebook and invited her to accompany him and Wei Liang.
• As Lin Yi passed Group B Class 1, dizziness let him glimpse strange carvings on the wall and green marks and mist around the classroom door handle.
• Lin Yi saw a hooded or cloaked figure in the dark end of the corridor, felt it watching him, and then watched it disappear as his vision returned to normal.
• Lin Yi wondered whether the figure was the one he had glimpsed on May 6 and considered whether his ignorance had kept it from attacking him.
• Lin Yi walked up to Group B Class 1’s door to inspect its handle, and Wei Liang urgently tried to stop him from opening it.

Lin Yi realized that Li Huiyuan could see green smoke from the Tomato Sauce residue, then struggled against a growing urge to explore the Campus. After a seemingly ordinary bathroom visit, he saw a white liquid humanoid impersonate Wei Liang and discovered that Wei Liang was missing.

• Lin Yi found plaster-like residue on the door handle, and Li Huiyuan spotted green smoke that vanished as the Tomato Sauce finished turning to fragments.
• Lin Yi reasoned that Li Huiyuan could serve as an extension of his vision, then grew alarmed when his curiosity about exploring the Campus seemed to intensify.
• Lin Yi calmed himself after becoming caught in an internal struggle, and he and Wei Liang went to the bathroom with Li Huiyuan heading to the women's room.
• After washing his hands, Lin Yi saw a false Wei Liang beyond the ventilation window and watched it lose its human shape and disappear as a white liquid creature.
• Lin Yi returned to the men's room and found that Wei Liang was gone.

Lin Yi discovered a gap in his memory after briefly encountering a fake Wei Liang, then identified and defeated an impostor wearing Li Huiyuan’s face. The creature melted in sunlight and crumbled into powder, while Lin Yi and Wei Liang hurried to find the real Li Huiyuan inside the women’s room.

• Lin Yi realized he had lost about a minute of memory, though Wei Liang said they had been together during that time.
• After hearing a scream from the women’s room, Lin Yi and Wei Liang cautiously approached and saw an apparent Li Huiyuan running toward them.
• Lin Yi recognized that the approaching Li Huiyuan was an impostor, dodged its lunge, and kicked it out into direct sunlight.
• Lin Yi denied the creature’s claimed identity, causing it to lose its disguise and melt into a White Grimer under the sunlight.
• Wei Liang broke the White Grimer with a thrown stone, and Lin Yi and Wei Liang went to check on the real Li Huiyuan.

Lin Yi rescued Li Huiyuan from an identity crisis caused by a lookalike creature, then decided to explore the Teaching Building with her. They left Wei Liang to return to class and set out to investigate the building’s elevator despite the rules denying that one existed.

• Li Huiyuan described seeing a silent double of herself in the restroom mirror, then began doubting her identity and freezing into a stone-like state.
• Lin Yi used a folded notebook page as a fake Student ID and repeatedly supplied Li Huiyuan’s name and Student Number until she recovered.
• Lin Yi reasoned that the plaster-liquid creatures copied forms anchored by people’s thoughts and tried to hypnotize victims into accepting their identities.
• Li Huiyuan asked to accompany Lin Yi on his exploration, while Wei Liang returned to Group B Class 2 to wait for them.
• Lin Yi chose to investigate the Teaching Building’s elevator first, despite the rules claiming the building had no elevator.

Lin Yi investigated the Teaching Building elevator with Li Huiyuan, using her to observe the area before approaching it himself. When he opened the doors, he found the car packed with twisted nonhuman classmates whose staring eyes seemed to echo the Art Building murals, and he retreated to the sunlit corridor as a strange rustling sound began.

• Lin Yi rejected Li Huiyuan's plan to survive without a Student ID and told her to focus on finding Student Commemorative Coins.
• Lin Yi had Li Huiyuan observe the elevator area from a distance, then watched it himself without noticing anything abnormal.
• Lin Yi decided to approach the elevator while it was still daylight and pressed the up button.
• The elevator doors opened to reveal a cramped car stuffed with twisted nonhuman classmates and protruding eyeballs.
• Lin Yi backed out of the dark corner as the eyeballs searched the area, then heard a rattling rustle.

Lin Yi discovered that the fleshy nonhuman classmates trapped in the elevator could be harmed by sunlight reflected with Li Huiyuan’s mirror. After the elevator shut on some of them, Lin Yi considered returning at dusk to investigate the elevator, but left without finding a place to hide his camera.

• Lin Yi heard the fleshy nonhuman classmates arguing inside the elevator before several were squeezed out into the sunlight.
• One lump of flesh tried to bewitch Li Huiyuan into pressing the elevator’s up button, but Lin Yi pulled her back from the shadowed area.
• Lin Yi used Li Huiyuan’s mirror to reflect sunlight onto the trapped flesh, roasting it and concluding that the mirror could serve as equipment against the nonhuman classmates.
• Lin Yi reasoned that the elevator’s interior might reveal important clues and considered returning at dusk to observe it.
• Lin Yi tried to find a place to leave his Digital Camera to record the elevator but abandoned the idea.

Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan encountered Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang at the elevator, where Xie Huayang destroyed the Nonhuman Classmate’s remains and explained how sunlight could eliminate them. Lin Yi then asked Xu Shunkang to explain what the things were and how they became classmates, leaving Xu Shunkang poised to reveal more about the Campus.

• Lin Yi told Li Huiyuan that elevator creatures entered classrooms at night and killed students when the lights went out.
• Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang found the dried Grimer Form, and Xie Huayang broke it open to reveal a blood vessel inside.
• Xie Huayang severed the blood vessel with his Baseball Bat, absorbed its tomato sauce, and used sunlight to destroy the remains.
• Xie Huayang warned Lin Yi to use pure sunlight to eliminate the creatures, while Xu Shunkang urged him to avoid exploring the Campus’s secrets.
• Lin Yi admitted he wanted to explore and asked Xu Shunkang what the nonhuman things were and how they became classmates.

Xu Shunkang explained that Night-Walking Species were contaminated beings that could, in a certain sense, be sculptures, while Lin Yi tried to learn more about them. Li Huiyuan was pulled into a frightening vision in which she realized she was a sculpture, but Lin Yi called her back; afterward, he continued questioning Xu Shunkang with just over an hour left to explore.

• Xu Shunkang described Night-Walking Species as living or dead aberrations animated by contamination and said they were sculptures in a certain sense.
• Lin Yi summarized the rules about campus sculptures, and Xu Shunkang warned that believing sculptures could move meant Lin Yi had entered the magnetic field's vortex.
• Li Huiyuan imagined a sculpture bearing her name, realized she was that sculpture, and fell into a dark, confused state as a voice called to her.
• Lin Yi repeatedly called Li Huiyuan's name until she regained focus, while Xie Huayang prepared to wake her with his Baseball Bat.
• Lin Yi told Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang that the Green Apron Chef had eaten Li Huiyuan's Student ID, then explained that she was staying with him to survive.
• Xu Shunkang accepted that Lin Yi could take Li Huiyuan along, offered cryptic advice, and Lin Yi redirected their conversation to Night-Walking Species while checking the time.

Xu Shunkang explained how campus contamination, student identities, and lost student IDs could turn experience students into night-walking species. Lin Yi learned that the Sailor Uniform Girl was not an art student but a night-walking species, though Xu Shunkang had only used her as an example and did not explain what she was.

• Xu Shunkang told Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan that people could control contamination and use it as a power, then explained how campus identities and student IDs anchored students to protective rules.
• Li Huiyuan revealed that she had seen green fog, and Xu Shunkang discovered that the mark left by Green Hat had vanished after Lin Yi peeled it off.
• Xu Shunkang explained that weakening willpower and distorted cognition increased contamination, while unstable students risked breaking rules, losing their student IDs, and becoming night-walking species.
• Lin Yi said he thought art students transformed into night-walking species, and Xu Shunkang clarified that he had called the Sailor Uniform Girl an art student to avoid destabilizing Lin Yi's cognition.
• Lin Yi realized Xu Shunkang meant the Sailor Uniform Girl was a night-walking species and asked what she actually was.

Lin Yi learned how Night-Walking Species formed and how sunlight could turn them into Plaster-like figures, while Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang secretly discussed Lin Yi’s severe Contamination and the forces guiding him. Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan then headed toward the Covered Bridge, where he stopped to look outside.

• Xu Shunkang explained that Night-Walking Species were beings eroded by Fog and described their transformation, while warning Lin Yi not to investigate Sculptures too closely.
• Xu Shunkang refused to explain more about Chefs and left with Xie Huayang after Lin Yi asked about them.
• After Lin Yi departed, Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang discussed his extreme Contamination, the school authorities’ possible plans for him, and the growing signs of danger around campus.
• Li Huiyuan told Lin Yi that she had offered herself as an example because she hoped to earn his help in return for providing useful information.
• Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan reached the Covered Bridge in Building B, where Lin Yi stopped and looked outside.

Lin Yi discovered that the moss on the Covered Bridge hinted at how the campus changed during Layer Drop, then slipped into a distorted layer shaped by his own deductions. He chose to remain there rather than return to the normal Teaching Building, leaving the strange world around him transformed again.

• Lin Yi noticed the Covered Bridge's moss grew in an unnaturally crooked pattern and theorized that it reflected the campus during Layer Drop.
• Lin Yi imagined the Teaching Buildings as modeling clay and mentally reshaped them into an abstract fortress based on the moss's pattern.
• Lin Yi returned from his thoughts to find Li Huiyuan missing and the Covered Bridge and Teaching Buildings distorted to match his imagined design.
• Li Huiyuan reappeared and shook Lin Yi, who saw his normal self standing across a thin boundary in the ordinary Teaching Building.
• Lin Yi realized he could cross back into the normal layer or remain in the stable world he had created through imagination, and he withdrew his step toward the boundary.

Lin Yi discovered that Contamination had appeared as white fog beneath the Covered Bridge in his imagined world, then returned to reality mentally exhausted. After spotting a Night-Walking Species watching him, he used Li Huiyuan’s mirror to focus sunlight on it and began destroying it.

• Lin Yi saw Contamination fog beneath the Covered Bridge in his imagined world and escaped back to reality as fatigue drained his mental strength.
• Lin Yi suspected Contamination had infiltrated Imaginary Daylight, then rested with Li Huiyuan and learned she had seen white-and-green fog coming from him.
• Lin Yi spotted a Night-Walking Species with a huge bloodshot eyeball clinging to the ceiling corner.
• Lin Yi borrowed Li Huiyuan’s mirror and reflected sunlight onto the creature, making its eyeball fall off and harden into a plaster-like substance.
• Lin Yi continued burning the Night-Walking Species with sunlight until it lost its grip and fell to the floor.

After a night-walking species died, Lin Yi was struck by green particles that left him with an invisible, seemingly permanent mark that might identify him as its killer. While heading back to Building A, he saw through the Teaching Building’s walls and discovered countless night-walking species lurking inside, suggesting it was their nest.

• Lin Yi watched the night-walking species harden into a sculpture, then saw green particles home in on him and leave a tattoo-like mark on his chest.
• Lin Yi reasoned that the mark could identify him to other night-walking species as the one who killed their kind, and decided to ask Tian Bufan and Wei Shan about it.
• Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan prepared to return to Building A, but Li Huiyuan worried the sculpture might revive at night, so Lin Yi went to collect stones.
• Less than ten minutes later, Lin Yi’s altered vision returned, revealing the green mark and countless night-walking species hidden in the walls of Teaching Building’s Building C.
• Lin Yi realized the Teaching Building might be the night-walking species’ nest and connected their nighttime emergence to the rule forbidding students from leaving classrooms after 21:00.

Lin Yi discovered that his heightened vision revealed green contamination and a hidden Covered Bridge from Building C, leading him to suspect that Building D might be the Art Building. He and Li Huiyuan returned to Building B, where Lin Yi considered whether the fog concealed a sea and whether the bridges connected the buildings across layers, but he remained unsure of his theory.

• Lin Yi saw green fog coming from himself and Li Huiyuan, then wondered whether his contamination had awakened the Night-Walking Species in Building C.
• Lin Yi smashed the sculpture-like substance with a rock; it crumbled into dust, and Li Huiyuan reported seeing its green fog disappear.
• Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan crossed the Covered Bridge back to Building B, and Lin Yi realized his altered vision had revealed another bridge leading from Building C in the opposite direction.
• Lin Yi recalled a castle-like Building D and considered whether it was the Art Building, despite the Campus notice denying that a castle existed.
• Lin Yi connected the hidden bridge, the mountains beyond the Wooded Belt, and waves beneath the fog, then speculated that the Covered Bridge might lead to the Art Building across overlapping layers.
• Lin Yi questioned whether the Campus could influence his thoughts and prevent him from falling through a layer when he approached the truth.

Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan investigated the Teaching Building’s Stairwell, where they saw mirrored flights of stairs and discussed how contamination let people perceive other layers. Lin Yi suspected the Stairwell could trap people in endless spirals, and imagined Li Huiyuan descending into it as the chapter ended.

• Lin Yi pulled Li Huiyuan out of a layer after she became entranced by the Stairwell and began dropping layers.
• Lin Yi and Li Huiyuan entered the Stairwell hand in hand, saw two mirrored flights of stairs, and retreated outside.
• Li Huiyuan described seeing the stairs twist together and a flight leading down, while Lin Yi explained how contamination exposed other layers.
• Lin Yi inferred that contaminated Experience Students without Student IDs could see the stairs to Basement Level One, and wondered whether Li Huiyuan could only see them in indirect light.
• Lin Yi theorized that the Stairwell drifted between layers and could trap people, then imagined Li Huiyuan entering it and descending an endless spiral.