Recaps

After escaping the basement, Qin Manjiang and Jian Cunxin were targeted by Patient One’s micropsia and found themselves shrinking as the ghost pursued them. Qin Manjiang realized the effect depended on their perspective, led Jian Cunxin toward the child, and stomped it; their bodies returned to normal, leaving them alive.

• Qin Manjiang and Jian Cunxin escaped the basement, but Li Daiping’s bloodied corpse fell before them.
• They saw Patient One, a nine-year-old boy with eyeballs filling his eye sockets, and realized he had become a ghost.
• As they ran toward the Main Building, the hospital seemed enormous and their bodies seemed to shrink under the boy’s micropsia.
• Qin Manjiang guessed that the distortion worked like a convex mirror and told Jian Cunxin to trust him as they ran toward the child.
• The world and their bodies changed size as they approached, and Qin Manjiang stomped the now tiny child.
• Qin Manjiang and Jian Cunxin returned to normal size and survived.

Qin Manjiang and his companions regrouped in Ping'an Hospital and used the remaining medicine to reveal that Nurse Liu was being forced to play a role. The chapter left Qin Manjiang asking whether the hospital was real.

• Qin Manjiang and Jian Cunxin returned to the Main Building and found Chen Zhiyuan alive, restraining Nurse Liu after hiding in the Congealed Jade Gourd.
• Jian Cunxin recounted how she and Qin Manjiang had defeated the size-changing ghost, and Qin Manjiang explained how they had turned its ability against it.
• Chen Zhiyuan shared the storyline he had written with the Continuation Pen, and Jian Cunxin summarized the clues about the hospital’s transformation and Nurse Liu’s connection to the Vengeful Ghost.
• Qin Manjiang noticed similarities between Nurse Liu and Li, then had Jian Cunxin retrieve the two remaining doses of medicine.
• After Jian Cunxin and Chen Zhiyuan gave the medicine to Qin Manjiang and Nurse Liu, Nurse Liu silently indicated that she was not Nurse Liu and had been forced to play that role, as had the patients.
• Qin Manjiang asked whether Ping'an Hospital was a real hospital.

Qin Manjiang suspected that the red pills could protect the players on the second night and might awaken their true selves, just as they awakened hidden consciousness in the hospital’s patients. As darkness fell, he prepared to test his wild conjecture.

• After taking the red pill, Nurse Liu broke down and insisted that she was not Nurse Liu and that the hospital was not a real hospital.
• Jian Cunxin briefly spoke in an eerie voice, revealing that a personality belonging to her patient had appeared inside her and contaminated her mind.
• Qin Manjiang recalled his suspicions about Nurse Liu’s role-playing and the strange Opening Lines in the basement, then considered that the players might also be playing roles without knowing it.
• Qin Manjiang proposed that taking the remaining pill might protect them during the second night and awaken their true selves, while Chen Zhiyuan and Jian Cunxin warned him about the risk.
• A cold gust swept into the lobby as the second night arrived.

Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan fled through the hospital as corpses rose from the concrete and a bloodied nurse pursued them. Qin Manjiang swallowed the red pill, a different consciousness took control, and he introduced himself to Chen Zhiyuan as Jiang Du.

• Nurse Liu warned everyone to close the doors, but a bloodied nurse broke through the concrete and emerged outside the Main Building.
• Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan fled upstairs while Jian Cunxin chased Nurse Liu, and the pursuing nurse broke into the building.
• As Qin Manjiang weakened, Chen Zhiyuan carried him through the corridor and refused to leave him behind.
• Qin Manjiang swallowed the red pill, then opened his eyes with a changed demeanor and told Chen Zhiyuan to put him down.
• The bloodied nurse abruptly veered through a wall and window, while Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan saw corpses rising across the mist-covered plaza.
• Chen Zhiyuan asked who had taken over Qin Manjiang's body, and the stranger introduced himself as Jiang Du.

Jiang Du took over Qin Manjiang’s body and persuaded Chen Zhiyuan to accompany him through Ping'an Hospital, where he hinted that he might end the Game before Qin Manjiang woke. Meanwhile, Jian Cunxin hid from a skeletal ghost on the hospital’s top floor, unable to understand why it had appeared there.

• Jiang Du told Chen Zhiyuan that he was another personality awakened by Qin Manjiang’s pill and promised to return the body when the medication wore off.
• Chen Zhiyuan explained the group’s discoveries and theories about Ping'an Hospital, then described how the Players had entered the Game.
• Jiang Du concluded that they had enough clues to try ending the Game, despite Chen Zhiyuan’s doubts, and changed the subject to Spirit Pupils.
• Jian Cunxin hid in a top-floor room after losing Nurse Liu and hearing a skeletal ghost wandering the corridor outside.

Jian Cunxin was trapped alone in a ward as a bone-cracking monster waited outside and blood began pouring from the ceiling. She realized a crucial truth about Ping'an Hospital before the blood killed her, and left Qin Manjiang a final message on her phone.

• Jian Cunxin hid in a ward while an unseen monster approached and stopped outside the door.
• Blood seeped into the room, and Jian Cunxin saw countless eyes as she recalled that every ghost in Ping'an Hospital had many eyes.
• Jian Cunxin connected the ghosts' eyes, the hospital's absence from the real world, and Nurse Liu's denial that it was a hospital, then realized what Ping'an Hospital was.
• Blood overwhelmed Jian Cunxin and suffocated her as she tried to finish a message on her phone.
• Jian Cunxin died after entering the unfinished words “Stay... a... live...” for Qin Manjiang.

Jiang Du explained that [Ping'an Hospital] could be a horror movie, where the players might survive by finding or becoming its protagonist—or by breaking the fourth wall. After learning that Chen Zhiyuan’s Continuation Pen permanently weakened his ability to think, Jiang Du urged him to stay alive and carry a message to Qin Manjiang about entering the Eye Realm.

• Jiang Du told Chen Zhiyuan that people who reached 999 Spirit Pupils left the game until ten people reached the threshold, and Chen Zhiyuan wondered whether Yang was still alive.
• Jiang Du reasoned that [Ping'an Hospital] was likely a movie, with its frightening setting and attacks shaped by horror conventions rather than consistent ghost rules.
• Jiang Du proposed three ways to survive: stick with the protagonist, take on the protagonist’s role, or break the fourth wall by confronting the audience.
• Chen Zhiyuan asked about the nurse’s corpse, and Jiang Du revealed that his Permanent Item could alter perception; Chen Zhiyuan then disclosed that his Continuation Pen showed possible future storylines at the permanent cost of his ability to think.
• Jiang Du told Chen Zhiyuan to find Qin Manjiang after the game and ask him to let Jiang Du enter the Eye Realm, adding that saving and backing up were essential in a game.

Jiang Du explained that the characters could break the Fourth Wall and led Chen Zhiyuan to Ward Two to look for a remaining pill. After distracting the corpses with Chen's phone, Jiang Du suddenly lost control of Qin Manjiang's body and told Chen to ask the patient about entering the Eye Realm.

• Jiang Du explained that the Fourth Wall could be broken if the movie's actors became aware of the camera and audience and interacted with them.
• Jiang Du reasoned that Wen Liangsheng's patient might not have taken his pill, leaving it in Ward Two, and said Nurse Liu could also help break the Fourth Wall.
• Chen Zhiyuan suggested distracting the corpses with a phone, and Jiang Du threw his lit, playing phone outside to draw them away.
• Jiang Du and Chen Zhiyuan rushed into Ward Two while the corpses chased the phone.
• Jiang Du told Chen Zhiyuan to ask the patient to enter the Eye Realm, then Qin Manjiang's body collapsed as Jiang Du lost control.

Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan searched Ping'an Hospital for medicine and found Guan She, who admitted he was trapped in the Game and killing was his way to survive. Chen Zhiyuan realized that the events unfolding matched a storyline written by the Continuation Pen.

• Qin Manjiang woke up after Jiang Du’s consciousness left his body, and Chen Zhiyuan told him what had happened.
• Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan went upstairs to find the medicine and heard violin music coming from patient number two’s ward.
• Qin Manjiang identified the violinist as Lian Yan, then used an ID badge to deduce that the man was an actor named Guan She from Rain City.
• Guan She said he had killed the patient to survive and could not escape the Game because only one person could survive.
• Qin Manjiang told Guan She that everyone in Ping'an Hospital had survived the start of each round and urged him not to despair.
• Chen Zhiyuan remembered that the scene matched a storyline written by the Continuation Pen and realized it had come true.

Qin Manjiang planned to use Chen Zhiyuan to distract Guan She while he retrieved the medicine and helped Li break the Fourth Wall. As Qin Manjiang realized Guan She was trying to seize other characters’ supernatural abilities, he heard a woman crying upstairs and rushed back to help Chen Zhiyuan.

• Qin Manjiang told Chen Zhiyuan to draw Guan She away so he could retrieve the medicine and take it to Li in the Third Ward Building.
• Chen Zhiyuan agreed to wait at the stairwell while Qin Manjiang ran downstairs, and Qin Manjiang worried that his teammate might die.
• Qin Manjiang realized that the Opening Lines could lead trapped Players to kill their companions and become permanent actors in [Ping'an Hospital].
• Qin Manjiang deduced that Guan She was Lian Yan, the villain protagonist, who wanted to kill supernatural characters and take their abilities.
• Qin Manjiang heard a woman crying upstairs, saw blood seeping through the ceiling, and ran back to help Chen Zhiyuan.

Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan escaped the Ping'an Hospital Ghost Story by interrupting its film, but the cinema revealed a vast crowd of supernatural entities before they vanished. Qin Manjiang recognized a figure resembling Li Xijiu among them, leaving the mystery unresolved as they cleared the story.

• Qin Manjiang dragged Chen Zhiyuan upstairs as the blood-covered ghost pursued them, and they barricaded themselves inside a ward.
• Guan She took control of Chen Zhiyuan and tried to convince Qin Manjiang to give up, but Chen Zhiyuan broke free by smashing his head into a wall and told Qin Manjiang he believed in him.
• Qin Manjiang realized they could stop the film by destroying its cameras and gouged out Chen Zhiyuan's eye and then his own.
• Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan awoke in a cinema, where the Ping'an Hospital film stopped and the Ghost Story Game declared it cleared.
• Qin Manjiang spotted a figure resembling Li Xijiu among the cinema's many supernatural entities before he and Chen Zhiyuan vanished in red light.

After Ping'an Hospital was cleared, Qin Manjiang and Chen Zhiyuan returned to the Eye Realm as the only survivors and received large Spirit Pupil rewards. Qin Manjiang rose to Third Seat, and the Eye Realm's next blood-red signal left the players fearing another Ghost Story was about to begin.

• In Fu City, Nie Yunzhen led a gathering where the remaining players discussed the Eye Realm and the pupil brands on their chests.
• A voice declared Ping'an Hospital cleared and transported all forty-three players into the Eye Realm.
• The Eye Realm displayed Chen Zhiyuan and Qin Manjiang's names, and the two returned as the only survivors.
• Chen Zhiyuan received 95 Spirit Pupils, bringing his total to 355, while Qin Manjiang received 150, bringing his total to 300.
• The Ten Seats Sequence placed Nie Yunzhen first, Chen Zhiyuan second, and Abyss—Qin Manjiang—third.
• The largest pupil sent out another blood-red light, alarming the players that a new Ghost Story might be starting.

A new Ghost Story, [Death as Scheduled], appeared after the third Ultimate Game was cleared, and five players were chosen to face it in seven days. Qin Manjiang avoided selection when an unknown voice turned the enormous pupil away, while Lian Yan escaped the cleared [Ping'an Hospital] and vowed to find Qin.

• The fourth Spirit Pupil revealed [Death as Scheduled], which warned that chosen players would die at midnight in seven days and gave no time limit.
• The Eye Realm selected Su Yu, Yue Chiqiu, Xia Nan, Cao Xiangrong, and Liu Jingqing as the five players for the new Ghost Story.
• The enormous spiral pupil nearly selected Qin Manjiang, but a voice in his mind told it to get lost, and it looked away.
• The countdown began at seven days, leaving the selected players time to prepare.
• Lian Yan crawled out of the remains of [Ping'an Hospital] clutching a photograph and said he would come find Mr. Qin.

Qin Manjiang learned that Qin Manyi had been chosen for Moon City’s Eye Realm, and she warned him not to go there until he became one of the final Ten Seats because he would disappear. After she left for Moon City, Chen Zhiyuan woke with more than three hundred Spirit Pupils and called Qin Manjiang to pass on a message from Jiang Du.

• Qin Manjiang spoke to the doll [I] about his doubts and asked it to lead everyone out of the Game if he could no longer continue.
• Qin Manyi showed Qin Manjiang the Moon City marking on her chest and told him she had been chosen for its Eye Realm.
• Qin Manyi urged Qin Manjiang to collect 999 Spirit Pupils, become one of the final tenth, and stay away from Moon City until then, warning that he would disappear.
• Qin Manyi left to stay in Moon City, and Qin Manjiang watched her go, recalling her warning.
• Chen Zhiyuan woke to a distorted world after exceeding 300 Spirit Pupils and remembered Jiang Du’s message for Qin Manjiang.
• Chen Zhiyuan called Qin Manjiang and arranged to meet him at Clear Pupil Bar.

As Liu Jingqing contemplated her impending death in the Ghost Story World, Nie Yunzhen called to gather Players searching for a way to save her. Qin Manjiang then invited her to the Clear Pupil Bar, and Liu Jingqing chose to go see her friends instead, leaving for the bar.

• Liu Jingqing watched a Husky and an elderly security guard chase each other through the rain, then reflected on the beauty of the world and her approaching death.
• Nie Yunzhen called Liu Jingqing to join the Players at Catface Café, where they were discussing changes in the Eye Realm and trying to find a way for Liu Jingqing to survive.
• Qin Manjiang called Liu Jingqing and invited her to the Clear Pupil Bar, saying that several friends had gathered there and that he had something important to share.
• Liu Jingqing apologized to Nie Yunzhen, ended the call, and decided that seeing Qin Manjiang and the others mattered more to her.
• Qin Manjiang texted Liu Jingqing the bar's address, Central District, Clear Pupil Bar.

Nie Yunzhen gathered players to help Su Yu, Yue Qiuchi, and Cao Xiangrong survive [Death as Scheduled], while Qin Manjiang convened a separate meeting at Clear Pupil Bar to reveal a backup version of the Eye Realm. His explanation was interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

• Nie Yunzhen noticed that most of the Ten Seats had skipped her gathering for another meeting, then asked the players who came to help Su Yu, Yue Qiuchi, and Cao Xiangrong survive [Death as Scheduled].
• Liu Jingqing arrived at Clear Pupil Bar and joined the gathering, where Xia Nan met fellow alumnus Yan Xiao and Qin Manjiang finished posing for Yu Ruoli's portrait.
• Zhong Xueran prompted Qin Manjiang to explain why he had invited everyone, and he showed them a seamless phone-like object called [Eye Realm].
• Qin Manjiang said the object was a backup that had stolen some of the permissions of Fu City's Eye Realm, but an unknown young man opened the bar door and entered.

Shen Hai revealed that Qin Manjiang’s [Eye Realm] could preserve players after death and demanded a place in it in exchange for his knowledge. He disclosed that he had seen current players searching for someone in fragments of past ghost stories, leaving Qin Manjiang and the others to consider who had been returning across multiple rounds.

• Shen Hai arrived at Qin Manjiang’s private gathering and revealed that the [Eye Realm] could back up players, potentially allowing them to be resurrected after death.
• Shen Hai warned that using the permanent item to create backups came at a price, and he asked Qin Manjiang to reserve him a place in the [Eye Realm] in exchange for what he knew.
• Qin Manjiang agreed, while the gathered players learned that Chen Zhiyuan already knew about the backup.
• Shen Hai explained that his [Faded Memories] pocket watch showed him fragments of a ghost story’s past, where he had seen current players.
• Shen Hai said he had seen a man and a woman repeatedly searching for someone, suggesting that they had been taking part for more than one round.

Shen Hai revealed that two unobservable figures had searched the Ghost Story Game for the [Eye Realm], and Qin Manjiang realized they knew its holder would eventually enter the game. As Shen Hai demanded that Qin use the item to make a backup of him, Qin wondered whether the [Eye Realm] contained earlier backups that made it worth searching across time and space.

• Shen Hai explained that he had seen a man and a woman while using [Faded Memories], but could not observe or remember their details, and suspected they did not belong to the present time and space.
• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that he had used [Faded Memories] to investigate the [Eye Realm] and became certain Qin possessed it when the [Forensic Doctor] entered the game.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the two searchers knew the [Eye Realm]'s holder would enter the Ghost Story Game, while Shen Hai mistakenly believed Qin had obtained it as his Permanent Item.
• Zhong Xueran raised the possibility that one of the searchers was among the gathered players, while Shen Hai asked Qin to keep his promise and leave him a backup in the [Eye Realm].
• Qin Manjiang admitted he did not know how to use the [Eye Realm], and Zhong Xueran, Xu Yi, Mei Sijun, Chen Zhiyuan, and Liu Jingqing warned him against accepting the cost Shen Hai described.
• Qin Manjiang considered trying the [Eye Realm] and wondered whether its previous backups explained why people had searched for it across time and space.

Qin Manjiang agreed to create a backup of Shen Hai and activated [Pupil Realm], where he discovered ten sealed Spirit Coffins. Unsealing them all at once caused him excruciating pain, and Jiang Du revealed that the coffins held the Ten Seats from twenty years ago before Qin Manjiang lost consciousness.

• Shen Hai insisted that his request was a fair exchange, and Qin Manjiang agreed to give him a backup despite Zhong Xueran's objection.
• Qin Manjiang activated [Pupil Realm] and found himself in a dark abyss surrounded by ten enormous coffins.
• Qin Manjiang agreed to unseal the Ten Spirit Coffins, causing all ten to crack open as black mist emerged and their occupants opened their eyes.
• Jiang Du spoke of the Ten Seats from twenty years ago and revealed that he was still alive, then addressed the people inside the coffins with hatred.
• Qin Manjiang lost consciousness, and Yan Xiao and Xia Nan confirmed that he was alive but unconscious.

A strange woman appeared in the rain in Fu City and devoured a man, while other dangerous strangers began appearing across the city. At the Clear Pupil Bar, the group discussed how Liu Jingqing and Xia Nan could survive the upcoming Ghost Story, and Shen Hai asked for its order.

• Qin Manjiang lost consciousness after using [Eye Realm], and Xu Yi suggested discussing the upcoming Ghost Story while they waited for him to wake.
• A confused woman appeared in the rain, lured a man into helping her, then revealed her monstrous mouth and tentacles and devoured him.
• Other bewildered but dangerous people appeared throughout Fu City as Zhong Xueran, Mei Sijun, Chen Zhiyuan, and Xu Yi analyzed the locationless, limitless [Death as Scheduled].
• Xu Yi urged Shen Hai to help Liu Jingqing and Xia Nan, arguing that doing so could earn Qin Manjiang's favor.
• Shen Hai considered Xu Yi's proposal, then looked at Liu Jingqing and Xia Nan and asked, "The order."

The group discussed how to disrupt the order of deaths in the upcoming ghost story, concluding that it would likely manifest as an intangible curse. After Qin Manjiang woke, Mei Sijun recognized that Jiang Du had taken over his body, and Jiang Du asked Shen Hai to accompany him.

• Shen Hai explained that the players should disrupt any death order, and the group agreed the unrestricted ghost story would likely involve a curse rather than a physical ghost.
• Xu Yi warned Xia Nan and Liu Jingqing that they would have to fend for themselves once the game began in six days, since they might carry a curse.
• Qin Manjiang woke, but Mei Sijun recognized that Jiang Du was controlling his body and demanded that he return it.
• Jiang Du said he had taken over because Qin Manjiang could not endure unsealing the [Eye Realm], and that he alone could store the others' backup.
• Jiang Du told Shen Hai to come with him.

Jiang Du offered Shen Hai a deal tied to the past and future, promising a chance to bring Ling back. At midnight on November 21, the [Death as Scheduled] Ghost Story began for five Players, plunging them into darkness as strange sounds filled their surroundings.

• Jiang Du told Shen Hai that his power over the past could help bring Ling back, but only if Shen Hai followed his instructions when needed.
• Qin Manjiang woke after a day unconscious, and Yu Ruoli stayed with him before agreeing to get food together.
• Qin Manjiang found that he could no longer use [Eye Realm], while the Players waited for the [Death as Scheduled] Ghost Story to begin.
• Liu Jingqing, Xia Nan, Su Yu, Yue Qiuchi, and Cao Xiangrong chose separate places to face the curse, planning to regroup only after learning their fates.
• Ten seconds before midnight, the lights went out for all five Players, and the moon vanished above Su Yu.
• At midnight, Xia Nan heard strange noises throughout his home and felt something enter it.

After the Players saw the message “Fate Is Already Decided,” Yue Qiuchi found herself unable to see her assigned fate and returned to her mahjong game. A terrifying apparition bearing her own face drove her to attack and kill a friend, then appeared to rise from the corpse and repeat, “You should die.”

• At midnight, Xia Nan, Liu Jingqing, Yue Qiuchi, Cao Xiangrong, and Su Yu saw “Fate Is Already Decided,” but none could learn their own fate.
• Yue Qiuchi tried to leave her mahjong game, upsetting her friends, who confronted her about her recent distance from them.
• Yue Qiuchi saw one friend's face change into her own and heard it say, “You should die,” then threw a glass at her.
• When another friend restrained her, Yue Qiuchi saw that person's face become her own and stabbed the friend on the right repeatedly with broken glass.
• Yue Qiuchi found her friend dead on the mahjong table, while the other two fled and she insisted a ghost had attacked her.
• The corpse opened its blood-red eyes, grinned, and repeated “You should die,” and Yue Qiuchi fled in terror.

Yue Qiuchi fled toward the outskirts after believing a ghost was pursuing her and struggling with guilt over killing her friend. An eerie call that sounded like her own voice made her stop at a service area, where a worker offered her food.

• Yue Qiuchi booked a ride out of Fu City, convinced that staying among people would let the ghost reach her.
• An unknown caller repeatedly phoned Yue Qiuchi, and she eventually answered while crying and challenging the caller to kill her.
• The caller, speaking in a voice Yue Qiuchi recognized as her own, told her to leave the car and not leave the city.
• Yue Qiuchi stopped at the Service Station before the car left Fu City, paid the driver, and watched him drive away with an eerie smile.
• A service area employee approached Yue Qiuchi and offered her a cheap late-night meal, which she accepted.

Cao Xiangrong hid in a crowded nightclub, hoping the people there would restrict the ghost’s power, but the dancers transformed into ghosts bearing his face. The crowd engulfed and killed him, leaving his corpse on the dance floor.

• Cao Xiangrong recalled how [Yang] had eliminated players who committed crimes and wondered how he could escape the prophetic ghost story.
• Cao Xiangrong tried to leave the dance floor when the nightclub crowd began moving in unnaturally stiff, synchronized steps.
• Cao Xiangrong answered a phone call and heard his own voice pleading for help before ending in a scream.
• The dancers turned to face Cao Xiangrong, revealing that every face looked like his and telling him it was time to die.
• The ghostly crowd overwhelmed Cao Xiangrong, and his corpse lay beneath the nightclub lights as the other dancers kept moving.