Chapter Summaries

Lin Yi weighed Mountain Man’s attempt to reach the Dormitory Building before the elevators opened, then learned Head Teacher 040’s emergency plan for getting students there safely at 20:00. The chapter ended with Lin Yi suspecting that the teacher had singled out twelve students because their high inspiration made staying in the classroom especially dangerous.

• Mountain Man left the classroom to try reaching his dorm, while Lin Yi and Wei Liang discussed the risks of using the stairwells or waiting beneath the Dormitory Building-096 streetlamp.
• Head Teacher 040 took attendance, calling more names than there were students present and marking several absent students, including people Lin Yi knew had died.
• Head Teacher 040 moved eight students, including Lin Yi and Wei Liang, near the classroom door and announced an evacuation plan: leave at 20:00, follow streetlamp numbers to Dormitory Building-001 and then Dormitory Building-096, and seek a Security Guard if they became lost.
• Head Teacher 040 took Li Huiyuan away, telling Lin Yi not to support her because she needed to move; Lin Yi watched her follow the teacher into the fog.
• Lin Yi counted twelve students selected to leave and wondered whether Head Teacher 040 had chosen them because their high inspiration made it dangerous to remain in the classroom.

Lin Yi connected the university’s identity-related objects to a strange white material and deduced that night-walking creatures and humanoid sculptures coveted Student IDs. He imagined a night scene in which the sculptures used a student’s name and number to imitate him and attacked when his ID was exposed, leaving him with a chilling new theory about the campus’s dangers.

• Lin Yi decided to follow Head Teacher 040’s advice and return to the Dormitory, then reviewed the Student, Teaching Building, and Dormitory Rules.
• Wei Liang pointed out that the booklets Lin Yi could carry seemed cheap, while the Cafeteria and Gymnasium Rules had more valuable-looking cases.
• Lin Yi realized that the Cafeteria and Gymnasium Rules, Student IDs, name badges, commemorative coins, and Head Teacher Rules shared a white acrylic-like material.
• Lin Yi connected the material to the rule about hiding Student IDs while swiping cards, Li Huiyuan’s urge to steal his ID, and night-walking creatures’ calls for him.
• Lin Yi imagined humanoid sculptures silently echoing a student’s identity until a streetlamp drove them away, then swarming him when a familiar voice made him turn and his Student ID became exposed.

Lin Yi’s deduction of how Humanoid Sculptures could steal Student IDs nearly overwhelmed him, but Wei Liang pulled him back to reality. At 20:00, Lin Yi and Wei Liang prepared to leave the classroom and seek shelter in the fog as Head Teacher 040 had instructed.

• Lin Yi envisioned a Humanoid Sculpture taking a Student ID and transforming into its owner, then became trapped by the cries of agony until Wei Liang jolted him out of the state.
• Lin Yi reasoned that strange entities might steal Student IDs both to usurp identities and to consume the special material they were made from, and wondered whether the IDs carried contamination.
• Lin Yi recovered while Wei Liang returned a photo book to the bookshelf area, and the Experience Students grew increasingly tense as Head Teacher 040’s 20:00 deadline approached.
• At 20:00, one Experience Student opened the classroom door, recoiled from the fog, and retreated, while Song Rentou walked out decisively.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang left the classroom to find shelter, with Wei Liang admitting he feared the dense fog and Lin Yi agreeing to look out for him.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang crossed the fog-shrouded Campus toward the Dormitory as Humanoid Sculptures called Lin Yi’s name from the darkness. Elsewhere, Nie Yun was deceived into pushing Ge Qing into the fog, and both men were transformed into Nonhuman Classmates as the Sculptures sought more people.

• Lin Yi and Wei Liang left the classroom, held hands, and walked down the Pebble Road through the fog while Lin Yi noticed the walls had begun dropping through Layers.
• Lin Yi discovered that other students walking the same route had vanished, examined the smooth white paint on a lamppost, and continued toward the Dormitory with Wei Liang as Humanoid Sculptures called his name.
• Nie Yun heard voices warning him that the Ge Qing beside him was an impostor, then shoved Ge Qing beyond the lamplight into the fog.
• A Humanoid Sculpture lured Nie Yun to the edge of the darkness, seized him, and dragged him out of the light.
• Nie Yun and Ge Qing emerged as Nonhuman Classmates with damaged Student IDs, while the Humanoid Sculptures in the fog called for more people.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang encountered the Nie Yun and Ge Qing Nonhuman Classmates, who were luring Experience Students into the fog. Lin Yi recognized them and tried to exploit their uncertain identities, leaving the two creatures confused as the Humanoid Sculptures called out reminders.

• The Nie Yun and Ge Qing Nonhuman Classmates lured an Experience Student beneath Streetlamp Pole-067 and pushed him into the fog, where the Humanoid Sculptures killed him.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang approached the streetlamp and Lin Yi recognized the two figures as Nonhuman Classmates who had replaced Nie Yun and Ge Qing.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang attempted to slip past the pair, but the Nonhuman Classmates blocked their way and the Humanoid Sculptures stirred in the fog.
• Lin Yi called the Ge Qing Nonhuman Classmate Nie Yun, while Wei Liang challenged its identity, causing the two creatures to become confused about who was who.
• The Humanoid Sculptures shouted reminders to the Nonhuman Classmates, but their overlapping calls made the pair even more agitated and uncertain.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang escaped the Teaching Building-067 streetlamp after using reverse cognitive contamination to confuse two nonhuman classmates, while Wei Shan brutally destroyed three more. Lin Yi and Wei Liang reached Teaching Building-001 and discovered that the routes to the Cafeteria, Gymnasium, and Dormitory Building converged there after the Layer Drop.

• Lin Yi and Wei Liang confused the Ge Qing and Nie Yun nonhuman classmates about their identities, kicked them into the fog, and caused them to merge into an unstable two-headed sculpture.
• The Ge Qing and Nie Yun nonhuman classmates returned beneath the Teaching Building-067 streetlamp with Li Jiannan, then confronted Wei Shan as he emerged from the fog.
• Wei Shan pushed the three nonhuman classmates into the fog, pulled Ge Qing back partly transformed, and tore off his sculpted arm.
• Wei Shan used Ge Qing's arm to smash all three transformed classmates, leaving their bodies shattered beneath the streetlamp.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang reached Teaching Building-001 and found streetlamps for the Gymnasium, Cafeteria, and Dormitory Building at the same junction.

During the 73rd Gray Fog Invasion, the school staff arranged for Li Huiyuan to go with the Security Guard to the Gymnasium while discussing the campus’s weakening defenses. Lin Yi and Wei Liang waited for the Security Guard beneath a dimming dormitory streetlamp as the fog closed in.

• Lin Yi and Wei Liang spotted a figure resembling Zhou Yuting inhaling the painted words beneath the Cafeteria-001 streetlamp and chose to leave her alone.
• Head Teacher 040 sent Li Huiyuan with the Security Guard to the Gymnasium because of her high spiritual sensitivity.
• Chef-0213 told Head Teacher 040 that the 73rd Gray Fog Invasion had begun, the Convenience Store Owner was missing, and the campus defenses had weakened.
• Head Teacher 040 locked the classroom and stayed in the office after the Security Guard, Chef-0213, and Li Huiyuan left.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang reached Dormitory Building-087, noticed streetlamps were skipping numbers and dimming, and waited for the Security Guard as the fog surrounded their shrinking pool of light.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang tried to return to the Dormitory Building after no security guard appeared by 21:00, but the fog distorted the road and threatened Lin Yi’s grip on reality. At the streetlamp marked Dormitory Building-092, Lin Yi sensed that the light was failing and discovered the road had become sand and the lamp’s glowing object was not a bulb.

• At 21:00, Lin Yi and Wei Liang found no security guard and set off toward the Dormitory Building as the fog closed in.
• Lin Yi supported the strangely cold Wei Liang and struggled through distortions in the road, reaching the Dormitory Building-090 pole at 21:06.
• Lin Yi reached the Dormitory Building-092 pole at 21:09 and felt an intense, unexplained danger despite standing beneath its light.
• Lin Yi realized the streetlamp could no longer warm Wei Liang and noticed the Pebble Road beneath them had become damp, soft sand.
• Lin Yi examined the fading streetlamp and discovered that its light came from a glowing stone rather than a conventional bulb.

Lin Yi carried Wei Liang through the failing streetlamps toward the Dormitory Building, discovering that the lamps’ supernatural light suppressed the Nonhuman creatures. After fighting off the Nonhuman Classmates beneath Dormitory Building-094, he continued toward Dormitory Building-095 as the road began cracking and distorting beneath him.

• Lin Yi realized that miraculous stones powered the streetlamps and that their supernatural radiance drove off Nonhuman creatures.
• When the Dormitory Building-092 lamp went out, Lin Yi climbed its pole with Wei Liang and used his enhanced vision to locate the route toward Dormitory Building-096.
• Lin Yi carried Wei Liang through the fog, reaching the lights at Dormitory Building-093 and Dormitory Building-094 for brief shelter as Nonhuman creatures pursued them.
• At Dormitory Building-094, Lin Yi resisted a Nonhuman Classmate’s lure, attacked the creatures with the bedsheet wrapped around his fist, and escaped when the lamp began to waver.
• Lin Yi ran toward Dormitory Building-095 as mist from the defeated Nonhuman Classmates clung to him, while the road cracked and warped beneath his feet.

Lin Yi struggled to cross the twisting road to the dormitory while falling deeper into the layer occupied by the night-walking species. As he neared collapse, he discovered they feared his gaze, then saw an unknown person lying on Wei Liang’s back.

• Lin Yi realized the road’s apparent shifts came from his position and perception breaking down, and the distortions dragged him into the layer of the nonhuman entities.
• The entities formed an Occult Scriptures Choir, repeating Lin Yi’s identity information while the road beneath him revealed itself to be made of night-walking species.
• Freezing wind and the choir’s warped chants pushed Lin Yi toward collapse as he crawled toward the Dormitory Building streetlamps with Wei Liang on his back.
• Lin Yi noticed the night-walking species fled whenever he looked at them, but Wei Liang remained unresponsive as Lin Yi reached his limit.
• Lin Yi turned to check on Wei Liang and discovered another person lying on Wei Liang’s back.

Lin Yi defeated the Xenomorphic Sculpture and was rescued with Wei Liang by the Security Guard, who explained that the layers had distorted Lin Yi’s perception of time. After reaching the dormitory, Lin Yi and Wei Liang rode the elevator to their room, where an unusually normal walk left Lin Yi shaken with disbelief.

• Lin Yi beat the Xenomorphic Sculpture to pieces after it tried to steal his Student ID, then saw fractured images showing that his watch’s true time was earlier than he perceived.
• The Security Guard arrived, restored Lin Yi’s strength with the Old Kerosene Lamp, and guided him and Wei Liang toward the Dormitory Building.
• The Security Guard explained that the layers had contaminated Lin Yi’s perception of time, and Lin Yi realized that the ordeal had lasted less time than he thought.
• The Security Guard escorted Lin Yi and Wei Liang to the Dormitory Building-096 Streetlamp Pole, where Wei Liang recovered and joked that Lin Yi had told him not to use his trump card.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang entered Elevator-12 and reached the fourteenth floor, then walked to room 1414 without encountering the usual disturbances.
• Lin Yi marveled at the unusually normal walk to their room and asked Wei Liang to swipe his Student ID first so he could savor the feeling.

Lin Yi confronted a corridor full of Nonhuman Classmates imitating Wei Liang and discovered that their identities depended on fragile self-anchoring. He exploited their confusion until their forms collapsed and they surged toward Dormitory 1401.

• Lin Yi saw numerous fake Wei Liangs gather outside Dormitory 1414 after the real Wei Liang entered.
• Lin Yi punched one fake Wei Liang and unsettled the others by challenging their claims to be Wei Liang.
• Lin Yi impersonated Li Huiyuan in his thoughts and used a fake Student ID to make the Nonhuman Classmates imitate her instead.
• Lin Yi threw the uniform-wrapped paper among the fakes and called out to Wei Liang, triggering an argument over their identities.
• The fake Wei Liangs lost their forms and crawled toward Dormitory 1401 as Lin Yi watched.

Lin Yi restored his sense of identity after tricking the nonhuman classmates, but the dormitory door vanished and he was thrown into the Art Building’s layer. Clinging to a sheer cliff above a vertical ocean, he faced rising gravity, hostile whispers, and climbing night-walking creatures.

• Lin Yi used his Student ID and notepad to re-anchor himself as Lin Yi after impersonating Li Huiyuan to deceive the nonhuman classmates.
• When Lin Yi tried to stand, he discovered that the wall and the door to dorm room 1414 had vanished, and the layer began pushing him out.
• Lin Yi passed through the gap between layers and emerged on a sheer cliff in the Art Building’s layer, where gravity pulled him toward a black abyss.
• Lin Yi clung to cracks in the mossy cliff as gravity strengthened and the sea wind’s whispers attacked his mind.
• Lin Yi heard night-walking creatures and saw countless twisted figures swarm up the cliff toward him.

Lin Yi escaped the abyssal layer by using his Sticky Note Notebook as an anchor and returned safely to Dormitory 1414. A scrap of paper from Song Rentou revealed how nonhuman classmates targeted dorm residents, leading Lin Yi to realize he may have disrupted the creatures tracking Wei Liang.

• Lin Yi calmed himself with the sound of pages turning, found his Sticky Note Notebook on the cliff, and used it to anchor himself back to Dormitory 1414.
• Lin Yi returned to the hallway, picked up the notebook, entered his dorm, and collapsed against the door while Wei Liang showered.
• Lin Yi found Song Rentou’s note in the wardrobe, which described nonhuman classmates forcing their way into the dorm and taking Song Rentou’s roommate.
• Lin Yi inferred that the nonhuman classmates used residents’ names and student numbers to target and abduct them.
• Lin Yi realized the fake Wei Liangs that had followed Wei Liang were using the same targeting mechanism, and that he might have disrupted their pursuit.

Lin Yi found Song Rentou’s note, discovered a strange figure lingering outside the dormitory, and realized that he could no longer remember anything from before boarding the Blue Bus. After the others returned, Lin Yi asked Wei Shan how he could attack the nonhuman entities so directly, leaving Wei Shan’s secret unresolved.

• Lin Yi recognized Song Rentou’s name on the note and wondered whether the Song Rentou in class was the survivor who had returned or a nonhuman impostor.
• Lin Yi discovered a peephole in the dormitory door and saw a strange figure muttering that it was Li Huiyuan before it wandered away.
• Lin Yi questioned Wei Liang about their major, then realized he could not remember his life before boarding the Blue Bus or why he had come to campus.
• Wei Shan, Kuai Hongji, and Tian Bufan returned to the dormitory, and Tian Bufan said Song Rentou’s note contained interesting information.
• Lin Yi asked Wei Shan how he could attack Nonhuman Classmates and the Green Apron Chef directly.

Lin Yi and Tian Bufan discussed how nonhuman classmates might emerge from unstable corners in the Campus and follow students through identity-based anchoring. After reconsidering Song Rentou’s paper, Lin Yi realized its contents were suspicious, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• Lin Yi asked Wei Shan about the green fog mark, and Wei Liang suggested that showering might have washed it away.
• Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji exchanged suspicions about Song Rentou’s paper before Kuai Hongji went to shower.
• Tian Bufan told Lin Yi that nonhuman classmates had appeared in large numbers along their route back to the Dormitory Building.
• Tian Bufan hypothesized that unstable corners could appear in the Dormitory Building and release nonhuman classmates that tracked students by anchoring onto their identities.
• Lin Yi connected the hypothesis to Maozi’s stairwell and the humanoid sculptures, then noted that the creatures could not enter dorm rooms without Student IDs.
• Lin Yi reread Song Rentou’s paper and concluded that something about what it said was not right.

Lin Yi and Tian Bufan analyzed Song Rentou’s contradictory note and reconstructed how suspicion and the Humanoid Sculptures might have led to the deaths of his roommates. Kuai Hongji emerged from the bathroom with a darker interpretation, challenging their assumption that the Nonhuman Classmates had to drag anyone out to kill them.

• Lin Yi concluded that Song Rentou had invited the Nonhuman Classmates into the dormitory and that his claim they opened the door themselves was a lie.
• Tian Bufan proposed that voices from outside had made the dormitory residents suspect one another, prompting someone inside to open the door.
• Tian Bufan theorized that Song Rentou avoided being targeted by anchoring himself to his dormitory rather than reciting his identity, then pretended to sleep while the Nonhuman Classmates killed his roommates.
• Tian Bufan suggested Song Rentou wrote his note after realizing the Nonhuman Classmates were still outside, and asked Kuai Kuai if his reconstruction was right.
• Kuai Hongji revealed he had heard their discussion and questioned why they assumed the Nonhuman Classmates needed to drag people out to kill them.

Kuai Hongji reconstructed how Song Rentou deliberately used the Nonhuman Classmates to kill his roommates, then wrote a confession that concealed his responsibility. The group settled in for the night, while Lin Yi wondered whether the Bathroom could serve as a shelter before he shuddered after leaving it.

• Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji discussed how the Nonhuman Classmates could have entered Song Rentou’s Dormitory and killed his roommates.
• Kuai Hongji found a clothes pole and reasoned that Song Rentou had used it to open the door while staying in bed and pretending to sleep.
• Kuai Hongji described how Song Rentou opened the Bathroom door, pushed his showering roommate outside, and hid while the Nonhuman Classmates killed him.
• Kuai Hongji concluded that Song Rentou wrote the paper after surviving and used two lies to disguise his deliberate murders as an act of confusion and fear.
• Kuai Hongji went to bed, and Lin Yi and Tian Bufan ended their discussion as Wei Shan and Wei Liang settled in for the night.
• Lin Yi wondered whether the Bathroom could offer protection, then shuddered after he stepped out of it.

Lin Yi and his roommates discussed the mysterious Song Rentou and the rules for surviving the fog, then examined footage of a being the Digital Camera could not record. Tian Bufan described perceiving the entity as a shifting, incomprehensible “concept-level sculpture” and called it “He.”

• Lin Yi connected the Song Rentou named on the scrap to the new student in their class and agreed with Tian Bufan that they should alert Head Teacher 040 and use the scrap to investigate him.
• Lin Yi told his roommates how he obtained the Digital Camera, and Wei Shan suggested that distracting thoughts could help students focus when nonhuman classmates tried to learn their identities.
• Lin Yi realized Wei Liang likely had high inspiration and considered how students could adapt the rules by focusing on something other than their identity information.
• Tian Bufan explained that the Digital Camera's static suggested the concept-level sculpture interfered with the camera's operating principles.
• Tian Bufan said he had sensed the entity without looking at it and described it as an incomprehensible, shifting being that their minds labeled a sculpture.

Lin Yi discussed Li Huiyuan, Zhou Yuting, and the Teaching Building with Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji, who warned him to prioritize his own survival as contamination and abnormal weather worsened. The chapter left Lin Yi realizing that the Dorm Supervisor’s lamp might grant him the same overwhelming power as a Security Guard.

• Tian Bufan and Kuai Hongji described seeing Zhou Yuting distressed near the Cafeteria before she staggered into the Wooded Belt, and they suspected a Humanoid Sculpture had taken her identity.
• Kuai Hongji criticized Lin Yi for risking himself to help Li Huiyuan and urged him to use sacrifices to test the Campus’s rules, while Tian Bufan advised Lin Yi to protect himself and focus on their team’s priorities.
• Lin Yi explained that Li Huiyuan had lost her Student ID, failed to find a Student Commemorative Coin in the Convenience Store, and was taken away by the Head Teacher; Tian Bufan theorized she might become an Athlete Student.
• Lin Yi described seeing Building D through a Covered Bridge and developing a vision that revealed green contamination fog; Tian Bufan proposed that it came either from contamination-induced abilities or signals emitted by something on the Campus.
• Lin Yi remembered seeing a lamp-bearing figure lead others toward Building D and realized the figure might have been the Dorm Supervisor, whose Old Kerosene Lamp could give him the same deterrent power as a Security Guard.