Recaps

Xu Tingfang told Shen Hai about the book Sick Village Records, which only she had seen, and he used its clues and a Library map to infer that the Nursing Home lay at the center of the six locations. Shen Hai left to investigate, while Xu Tingfang chose to search the Library for its mysterious lesion, encouraged by the escape method he shared.

• Xu Tingfang told Shen Hai that she had seen Sick Village Records among the Library books, but the book had vanished and Shen Hai said he had seen only ordinary books.
• Xu Tingfang wondered whether each player perceived the village differently, and Shen Hai found a map near the Library entrance.
• Shen Hai mapped the six locations and noticed that the Nursing Home lay at the center of the pattern, then decided to go there.
• Xu Tingfang said she could not leave the Library, and Shen Hai explained that finding the Administrator would let her escape while asking her to look for the lesion.
• After Shen Hai reassured her and revealed another way out, Xu Tingfang decided to search the Library for the lesion.

Shen Hai investigated the Supermarket and found evidence that its dead staff had been infected by living parasites, then entered the Library and discovered Xu Tingfang already had Frog Eggs on her face. He could not remove them and chose not to tell her, leaving her to clear the Game and escape Sick Village before they matured.

• Shen Hai cleared the Supermarket and found its four employees dead, their necks covered in Frog Eggs.
• Shen Hai searched the Supermarket and dodged a black thread parasite that shot from the Boss's corpse.
• Shen Hai found a ledger noting that an unidentified old man from the Nursing Home had bought a case of alcohol on credit.
• Shen Hai entered the Library through an open window and found Xu Tingfang moving books while Frog Eggs clung to her neck and chin.
• Shen Hai tried to wipe away the Frog Eggs with a handkerchief but failed, then decided not to reveal the grim discovery to Xu Tingfang.

Qin Manjiang used the Nursing Home’s rules to summon its director, Lao Zhang, and accepted a tour while staying alert to the strange residents and the director’s unnatural shadow. The chapter ended when Lao Zhang asked his name, and Qin Manjiang gave the false name Qin Se.

• Qin Manjiang retreated to the entrance and loudly called for staff to arrange a tour.
• Two residents covered in “Frog Eggs” charged at Qin Manjiang, but Lao Zhang appeared and ordered them to return to their places.
• Lao Zhang introduced himself as the director and urged Qin Manjiang to stay overnight after the tour.
• Qin Manjiang noticed Lao Zhang’s twisting shadow and agreed to follow him through the Nursing Home.
• As Lao Zhang asked his name in the dim Main Hall, Qin Manjiang gave the false name Qin Se.

Qin Manjiang toured the Nursing Home with Director Zhang and discovered signs that its residents and staff were missing or abnormal, while the director insisted it was the only safe place to stay at night. Shen Hai arrived, and Qin Manjiang left with him to find the others, ending with Shen Hai asking what to call him.

• Director Zhang warned Qin Manjiang that the village was dangerous at night and urged him to bring his friends to the Nursing Home.
• Qin Manjiang toured the Nursing Home and saw six elderly residents with frog-egg-like growths, while the seventh resident and the staff were unaccounted for.
• After Qin Manjiang's individual area cleared and dusk approached, Shen Hai arrived at the Nursing Home to tour it.
• Qin Manjiang told Shen Hai that Director Zhang claimed the Nursing Home was the only safe place to stay overnight.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai left to find their friends, and Shen Hai asked Qin Manjiang what he should call him.

Shen Hai and Qin Manjiang pieced together clues about Sick Village and concluded that the missing old man from the Nursing Home was central to its mystery. They found Yu Ruoli alive, and Qin Manjiang carried her as they continued their search.

• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that the villagers were dead and shared his findings from Sick Village Records and the Supermarket Ledger about the missing old man and the Frog Eggs virus.
• Qin Manjiang proposed that the villagers either forgot the old man passively because he was a ghost or actively blocked him from their memories.
• Shen Hai and Qin Manjiang agreed that the missing old man was the key and that they needed to return to the Nursing Home for clues.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai found Yu Ruoli collapsed at a fork in the road, and Qin Manjiang confirmed she was alive.
• Shen Hai said Yu Ruoli had likely fainted from mental exhaustion, and Qin Manjiang slung her over his shoulder as they continued onward.

As darkness and the fog returned, Shen Hai went into the Library to retrieve Xu Tingfang while Qin Manjiang considered the village’s pentagram layout and suspected an out-of-control evil god. Shen Hai found Xu Tingfang covered in frog eggs and transferred some to his own neck, insisting he would clear the ghost story before they hatched.

• Shen Hai chose to continue with Qin Manjiang to the Library and told him to wait outside while he went in for Xu Tingfang.
• Qin Manjiang connected the village’s pentagram layout, the Nursing Home’s central position, and the frog eggs to a ritual, and suspected an evil god was involved.
• Shen Hai searched the Library and found Xu Tingfang in the washroom, devastated after seeing the frog eggs spreading across her neck.
• When Xu Tingfang resisted leaving, Shen Hai pulled several frog eggs from her neck and placed them on his own.
• Shen Hai told Xu Tingfang to obey him because he would clear the ghost story before the eggs hatched.

Xu Tingfang escaped the Library with Shen Hai, but the group became separated in the night fog while trying to return to the Nursing Home. Qin Manjiang found himself alone outside a Public Toilet, while Xu Tingfang and Shen Hai faced an unknown presence on the scarf.

• Xu Tingfang used Shen Hai's book trick to make the Library's Administrator let her leave, then followed him out.
• Qin Manjiang ordered Shen Hai and Xu Tingfang to keep up and led them through the thickening fog with Yu Ruoli over his shoulder.
• After darkness fell, the group held Qin Manjiang's scarf and refused to use their phones as lights; Shen Hai took the lead when Qin Manjiang lost his sense of direction.
• Xu Tingfang heard faint breathing and wet footsteps, then bumped into something slimy that she mistook for Professor as strange growths appeared on her neck.
• Shen Hai realized the scarf's middle seemed to be unheld, while Qin Manjiang became separated and found himself outside a Public Toilet.

Qin Manjiang reached the Public Toilet Area while carrying Yu Ruoli and realized its rules mixed genuine instructions with traps. He identified the fake rules and prepared to enter the toilet with a clearer plan.

• Qin Manjiang tried to walk away from the Public Toilet with Yu Ruoli, but the fog’s ghost wall sent him back to its entrance.
• Qin Manjiang read the Public Toilet rules and noticed that the red warning and contradictory instructions suggested some rules were false.
• Qin Manjiang set Yu Ruoli down because a rule required him to be the only person in the toilet.
• Qin Manjiang identified three false rules, including the instructions about footsteps, flushing, and leaving after using the toilet.
• Qin Manjiang concluded that the real rules could be completed while holding his breath and that the area’s danger lay in trusting the sign without question.

Qin Manjiang cleared the Public Toilet by finding Du Bi'an dead, investigating the strange footsteps, and merging with his own shadow before his breath ran out. He carried Yu Ruoli into the fog, while Shen Hai and Xu Tingfang encountered the mangled Luo Chengyou at the entrance to Nine-Bend Alley Lane.

• Qin Manjiang found Du Bi'an dead in a stall and dragged his corpse outside before checking that the other stalls were empty.
• Qin Manjiang waited for strange noises without entering a stall, then saw his shadow rush in and open a stall door.
• Qin Manjiang grabbed his shadow, merged with it, and escaped the Public Toilet just as he ran out of breath.
• Yu Ruoli briefly woke and recognized the name Professor, but fainted again after seeing Du Bi'an's corpse.
• Qin Manjiang carried Yu Ruoli deeper into the fog after clearing the Public Toilet, while the fog remained and the path was unclear.
• Shen Hai and Xu Tingfang saw the mangled Luo Chengyou appear as the fog parted and the sign for Nine-Bend Alley Lane emerged.

Shen Hai examined Luo Chengyou’s crushed corpse outside Nine-Bend Alley and studied the alley’s rules, suspecting that its walls could contract. Xu Tingfang entered alone after losing sight of Shen Hai, then heard a voice claiming to be him and urging her to return without looking back.

• Shen Hai found slime from the “Frog Eggs” on Luo Chengyou’s hands, though the corpse showed no sign that they had infected him.
• Shen Hai inferred that Nine-Bend Alley’s walls could squeeze travelers and considered how its three rules might be traps.
• Shen Hai discovered that Xu Tingfang had vanished into the fog or entered the alley while he was thinking.
• Xu Tingfang entered Nine-Bend Alley, heard a voice claiming Shen Hai had gone to retrieve his scarf, and realized the explanation seemed suspicious.
• The voice told Xu Tingfang that looking back differed from turning around and urged her to return, prompting her to consider the distinction.

Xu Tingfang was tricked into seeing a monster disguised as Shen Hai, which chased her into an alley that narrowed until she could go no farther. Before deliberately violating [Don't Stop Walking] and being crushed by the walls, she recorded what she had discovered about the Lesion for Shen Hai and the others.

• A monster disguised as Shen Hai tricked Xu Tingfang into looking back, allowing it to enter the alley and pursue her.
• Xu Tingfang realized that seeing the monster, rather than merely turning around, had triggered [Don't Look Back].
• Xu Tingfang fled into the middle of three branching paths, but the alley narrowed and trapped her between the monster and the walls.
• Xu Tingfang recorded the Lesion's location and her Library discoveries on her phone, hoping it would survive after her death.
• Xu Tingfang deliberately stopped walking, violating [Don't Stop Walking], and the walls crushed her.

Shen Hai discovered that Nine-Bend Alley’s entrance and exit were the same and that a monster posing as Xu Tingfang was trying to mislead him. He pulled Xu Tingfang’s corpse from the creature and crushed its fallen eyeball, leaving the monster unable to harm him.

• Shen Hai entered Nine-Bend Alley backward and saw a monster forming at the entrance in Xu Tingfang’s likeness.
• Shen Hai realized the alley looped back to its entrance, where the Sick Village Nursing Home appeared beyond the fog.
• Shen Hai understood that the monster’s appearance and calls were meant to manipulate him into moving away from the true exit.
• Shen Hai recognized Xu Tingfang’s corpse inside the monster and pulled her free.
• Shen Hai crushed the monster’s fallen eyeball as it tried to retrieve it.

Shen Hai and Qin Manjiang returned to the Nursing Home with Xu Tingfang dead and Yu Ruoli unconscious, where they uncovered more about the village’s threat and discussed their hatred of [Eye Realm]. The chapter ended with Qin Manjiang asking Shen Hai to help retrieve his backup phone so they could bring [Eye Realm] down.

• Shen Hai walked through the monster at the entrance of [Nine-Bend Alley], causing it to dissolve, and found that Xu Tingfang had dropped her phone.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai met outside the Nursing Home carrying Yu Ruoli and Xu Tingfang, then followed the Old Director inside and settled in a staff dormitory room.
• Qin Manjiang asked Shen Hai about the growth on his neck, and they agreed that an evil god—not a ghost or virus—was ravaging the village.
• Shen Hai offered to play Xu Tingfang’s last words, but Qin Manjiang first asked whether Shen Hai hated [Eye Realm] and wanted to erase it.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that his backup phone was with his other self in [Fu City] Eye Realm and asked Shen Hai to help retrieve it, saying he wanted to bring [Eye Realm] down.

Qin Manjiang explained that he was a consciousness created from Jiang Du’s resurrection shell and had spent years imitating people around him before discovering his own identity. He told Shen Hai he wanted to prevent [Eye Realm] from ever opening again, and Shen Hai asked to hear his plan after they dealt with an out-of-control evil god.

• Shen Hai rejected Qin Manjiang’s request and called him contradictory and strange, asking who he really was.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that his consciousness had awakened in Jiang Du’s prepared body and that he had first imitated Jiang Du, then Yang and others, including Shen Hai.
• Qin Manjiang said that after waking in Yan Xiao’s clinic following Wedding Dress, he finally understood himself and what he wanted to do.
• Qin Manjiang told Shen Hai he knew he was not evil and wanted to make sure [Eye Realm] could never open again.
• Shen Hai asked Qin Manjiang to tell him his plan, and Qin Manjiang said they first had to send off an out-of-control evil god.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai listened to Xu Tingfang’s final recording and traced Sick Village’s abnormalities to an elderly Nursing Home resident connected to the book “Mermaid Flesh.” They searched the second floor for her former room, where Qin Manjiang sensed someone watching him.

• Shen Hai played Xu Tingfang’s recording, which described finding Frog Eggs in the Library washroom and revealed that she had discovered the book “Mermaid Flesh.”
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai concluded that an elderly Nursing Home resident was the source of Sick Village’s abnormalities and suspected she had sought a way to extend her life.
• Shen Hai recalled that the elderly woman had bought a large quantity of alcohol before [Poison] broke out, and the two decided to search her former room.
• Qin Manjiang covered the unconscious Yu Ruoli with a blanket before he and Shen Hai quietly left their dormitory and went to the second floor.
• The pair split up to inspect the rooms, and Qin Manjiang sensed that someone was watching him after he looked into one room.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai discovered that the Old Director had served them suspicious meat, while Yu Ruoli woke in the Basement beside a dismembered corpse. The Old Director confronted her and asked whether she knew what Mermaid Flesh was.

• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai found elderly residents awake in every room on the second floor and were stopped by the Old Director.
• Qin Manjiang claimed they were looking for food, and the Old Director led them to the Back Courtyard Kitchen and served them bowls of meat.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai entered the Kitchen and found a finger bone in a pot of braised meat, making them suspect it was Mermaid Flesh.
• Yu Ruoli woke in the Basement beside the half-dismembered corpse of the elderly woman from the Medical Station.
• The Old Director appeared at the Basement stairs and asked Yu Ruoli if she knew what Mermaid Flesh was.

Yu Ruoli discovered that the Old Director was turning people into mermaids by feeding them strange meat, but his body was made of Frog Eggs and she could not fight him. After he forced her to eat, scales grew over her limbs, and her eyes began to lose the ability to blink.

• The Old Director told Yu Ruoli that mermaids were made by turning humans into fish and offered her a bowl of meat.
• Yu Ruoli waited for the Old Director to approach, then kicked at him, but her foot sank into Frog Eggs that made up his lower body.
• The Old Director made the Frog Eggs crawl off Yu Ruoli and return to him, then forced her to eat the meat.
• Yu Ruoli tried to vomit after the Old Director left, but the meat had dissolved in her stomach.
• Grayish-white scales covered Yu Ruoli's limbs and regrew whenever she clawed them off, and she found that she could no longer blink.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai found that Yu Ruoli had disappeared and suspected the director had abducted her. They decided to exploit the nursing home’s aggression rule and split up to search for her and the missing old woman’s room, while Shen Hai planned to test a theory in the courtyard.

• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai found Yu Ruoli missing from the staff dormitory, while Xu Tingfang’s corpse remained in place.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai reasoned that the director wanted either a living person or someone untouched by the frog eggs, and agreed that he was a supernatural entity.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai took alcohol-containing liquids and planned to use them against the director and any frog eggs they encountered.
• Qin Manjiang set out to search for Yu Ruoli, while Shen Hai was tasked with finding the missing old woman’s room.
• Shen Hai questioned why all eight second-floor rooms seemed occupied, then planned to test a conjecture in the courtyard as Qin Manjiang left.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai planned to search the second-floor rooms for clues while the Old Director sent the seven elderly residents after them. After discovering a likely hidden space and realizing one of the residents might be an impostor, they prepared to fight as they searched.

• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai evaded the Old Director, who went upstairs and threatened to send someone to find them.
• Qin Manjiang told Shen Hai to draw the residents to the Back Courtyard while he searched their rooms for the first missing resident's room.
• Shen Hai led Qin Manjiang into the Front Yard, where they noticed the second floor appeared to contain hidden space.
• Qin Manjiang realized the Nursing Home still had seven elderly residents despite one having disappeared, suggesting something inhuman had joined them.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai considered whether the Old Director was the red-clad figure and decided to attack anyone they encountered.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai fought their way through the Nursing Home as they searched for a hidden room. After reuniting in the Main Hall, Shen Hai began making an eerie choking sound and told Qin Manjiang to go.

• Qin Manjiang chopped off a hand reaching through the Kitchen door and poured Huoxiang Zhengqi Water on it, turning it into motionless frog eggs.
• Qin Manjiang scattered cooked meat across the Kitchen floor, escaped through a window, and watched three old people rush in to fight over it.
• Shen Hai lured an old person out of the Main Hall, struck it with a cooking wine bottle, and destroyed it with the wine.
• Shen Hai chased another old person through the Main Hall, then realized it was Qin Manjiang, and the two decided to search for the hidden room together.
• Qin Manjiang noticed Shen Hai clutching his neck and making an eerie sound before telling him to go.

Qin Manjiang realized Shen Hai had been guiding him to the third-floor storage room while pretending to be controlled, and the two of them discovered a way into the hidden space beneath it. They confronted the Old Director, whose power depended on the name Shen Hai had been given.

• Shen Hai attacked Qin Manjiang, who dodged and tried to determine whether Shen Hai could still resist the Old Director’s control.
• Qin Manjiang realized Shen Hai was guiding him upstairs and followed him into the third-floor storage room.
• Shen Hai gave Qin Manjiang his Gazing Mirror glasses, which revealed themselves to be a one-time item that could reverse-track a curse.
• Qin Manjiang remembered that he had called Shen Hai “Shen Qing” when the Old Director asked for his name, keeping their real names hidden.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai entered the sealed hidden room and greeted the startled Old Director.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai exposed the Old Director’s deception and killed him in the secret chamber beneath the village. The Game did not end, and the Old Director’s claim that Yu Ruoli had become a mermaid left her fate uncertain.

• Shen Hai revealed that he had pretended the Old Director’s curse controlled him so he could trace its source and locate him.
• Shen Hai opened a hidden floor entrance, and he and Qin Manjiang descended into the chamber where the Old Director stood inside a candlelit pentagram.
• Qin Manjiang’s knife passed through the Old Director, whose body transformed into Frog Eggs and then returned to flesh.
• Shen Hai splashed the Old Director with Cooking Wine while Qin Manjiang threw Huoxiang Zhengqi Water at him.
• The Old Director warned that Yu Ruoli had become a mermaid and that only he could save her, but Qin Manjiang poured Cooking Wine into his mouth and dissolved him into foul blood.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai waited for the Game to end, but it did not.

After killing the Old Director, Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai discovered that the threat remained and suspected Yu Ruoli had become another point of contact with the evil god. When bloody scales and rising water trapped them, Qin Manjiang chose to descend into the opening to save her while Shen Hai stayed behind.

• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai realized the game had not ended because another point of contact with the evil god might still exist, and suspected Yu Ruoli.
• They opened the hidden space and saw freezing water and bloody fish scales flowing upward as a chilling, overlapping voice cried from below.
• The water trapped Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai, but they discovered they could move toward the opening and could escape by breaking a window instead.
• Shen Hai urged Qin Manjiang to take the safer route out, but Qin Manjiang told him to go ahead and chose to descend after Yu Ruoli.
• Qin Manjiang recalled Yu Ruoli's kindness and the affection he sensed between them, and resolved that she should not be taken by the evil god.

Qin Manjiang reached Yu Ruoli in the secret room and used the Doll to erase her longevity ability, sacrificing his capacity for liking. Shen Hai left alone, and the Ghost Story announced that Sick Village had been cleared.

• Shen Hai remembered the woman who had cared for him, punched through a window, and climbed outside.
• Qin Manjiang found Yu Ruoli transformed into a mermaid and confirmed that she remained conscious.
• Qin Manjiang comforted Yu Ruoli as she resisted her monstrous instincts and told him her ability was longevity.
• Qin Manjiang used the Doll to erase Yu Ruoli's longevity ability, sacrificing his emotion of liking.
• Shen Hai heard the Ghost Story announce that Sick Village had been cleared.

Yu Ruoli and Shen Hai returned from the game, while Qin Manjiang resumed investigating the transformed players in Moon City. Kong summoned Qin Manjiang to a hunting game at the Yuelai Hotel, and Dog revealed that the boss had left his Spirit Coffin before the others awoke.

• Yu Ruoli woke in Fu City without scales or other signs of transformation and decided not to call Qin Manjiang because she believed he wanted to keep his identity secret.
• Shen Hai contacted Qin Manjiang, accepted his proposal in exchange for help clearing the game, and agreed to investigate the impostor in Fu City's Eye Realm.
• Qin Manjiang returned to the Apartment in Moon City, questioned Fang Xiu about the murderer who killed Yan Yaoling, and asked whether the hunters had a time limit.
• Dog met Qin Manjiang outside the Apartment and relayed Kong's invitation to the Yuelai Hotel at seven for a hunting game.
• Dog told Qin Manjiang that only nine of the ten revived members had returned because the boss had opened his own Spirit Coffin and left earlier.