Recaps

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai traveled to Snake Mouth District after Nie Yunzhen asked the six players to gather for the upcoming Hide-and-Seek Ghost Story. The group met in a café, where Nie Yunzhen said the location seemed randomly chosen and they would need to work out the game’s rules and identify the ghost.

• Shen Hai warned Qin Manjiang that trusting Yi Yu and saving Yu Ruoli were naive choices, while Qin Manjiang explained he wanted to avoid making the choices Jiang Du would make.
• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that he had been abandoned as a child and had changed his name after turning eighteen.
• Nie Yunzhen called Qin Manjiang and asked him to bring Shen Hai to Snake Mouth District for the six players’ Hide-and-Seek Ghost Story.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai arrived in Snake Mouth District and met Nie Yunzhen, Chen Zhiyuan, Mayfly, Zheng Jun, and Liu Jingqing.
• Nie Yunzhen said Snake Mouth District had no strange rumors and that the players needed to determine the game’s rules and identify the ghost.

The eighth Ultimate Game, the Hide-and-Seek Ghost Story, selected players in the Eye Realm as the Ten Seats rankings shifted. Qin Manjiang was selected as the sixth player, leaving the others to face a game that had already chosen several prominent players.

• The Hide-and-Seek Ghost Story appeared, and the eyes across the Eye Realm selected Liu Jingqing as its first player.
• Nie Yunzhen was selected second as Qin Manjiang reviewed the changed Ten Seats rankings, including his rise to Second Seat.
• Chen Zhiyuan was selected third, prompting concern because his Permanent Item had severely diminished his ability to think.
• Shen Hai and Mayfly were selected fourth and fifth, leading the survivors to notice that nearly every chosen player belonged to the Ten Seats.
• The eyes selected Qin Manjiang as the sixth player and marked him with the name [Professor].

The players suspected Yi Lianhai had influenced the sudden three-stage Hide-and-Seek Ghost Story, while Shen Hai urged Yan Xiao to lure him out. Qin Manjiang then learned that Yi Yu could check in for the story in his place because the Ghost Story treated their combined Spirit Pupil Points as belonging to both [Abyss] and [Professor].

• The players returned from the [Eye Realm] and noted that its new instructions called the Hide-and-Seek round a game and warned them not to get found.
• Yan Xiao suggested the warning sounded like Doctor, and the group connected the Ghost Story’s sudden arrival to their discussion of Yi Lianhai.
• Qin Manjiang left to handle an urgent matter, while Shen Hai told the others he suspected [Abyss] had informed Doctor and wanted Yan Xiao to lure him out.
• Yan Xiao agreed to investigate Doctor and announced that he planned to go to Moon City.
• Yi Yu told Qin Manjiang he could check in for him as [Abyss], explaining that their Spirit Pupil Points had been counted together since the Snow Mountain Ghost Story.

Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai traveled to Snake Mouth District to join four other players for the upcoming Hide-and-Seek ghost story. They gathered in a café, where Nie Yunzhen said the district had no unusual rumors, so they would need to focus on the game’s rules and identify the ghost.

• Shen Hai challenged Qin Manjiang for trusting Yi Yu, and Qin Manjiang explained that he did not want to make the choices Jiang Du would have made.
• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that he had been abandoned as a child and had changed his name after turning eighteen.
• Nie Yunzhen called Qin Manjiang and asked him to bring Shen Hai to Snake Mouth District for the Hide-and-Seek game.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai met Nie Yunzhen, Chen Zhiyuan, Zheng Jun, and Liu Jingqing in the commercial district and went with them to a café.
• Nie Yunzhen said Snake Mouth District had no strange rumors and that the group needed to determine the game rules and find out who the ghost was.

Qin Manjiang questioned Nie Yunzhen about how she recognized him, and she warned him that Li Xijiu had traded information about him. As the players prepared for the Hide-and-Seek ghost story in Snake Mouth District, Shen Hai challenged Nie Yunzhen’s plan and began choosing a partner to explore with.

• Qin Manjiang asked Nie Yunzhen how she recognized him, and she warned him to be wary of Li Xijiu, who had traded information about him for information from her.
• Qin Manjiang reflected on Li Xijiu’s suspicious behavior and Nie Yunzhen’s unexplained connection to Moon City’s [Eye Realm].
• Nie Yunzhen introduced Zheng Jun, who recounted surviving the [Cat-and-Mouse] ghost story by hiding in the sewer where a dead child believed no one could find him.
• Shen Hai argued that the players could not identify the ghost from Snake Mouth District’s history and suggested scouting hiding places instead.
• Nie Yunzhen agreed that the group should familiarize themselves with the area, while Shen Hai urged them not to travel alone.
• Shen Hai chose Chen Zhiyuan as his partner, and Chen Zhiyuan went with him despite his uncertainty about their shared past.

Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing searched Snake Mouth District for hiding places before a game, but a malfunctioning Sheep Doll announced that it had found them and every person and object with eyes seemed to watch them. They fled the mall, while the staff who passed them also turned to look.

• Shen Hai told Chen Zhiyuan to follow him during the game, claiming they would be safer working together, and privately considered using him as bait.
• Shen Hai wondered how Yi Yu had entered Fu City's [Eye Realm] during lockdown and whether Qin Manjiang's identity had made it possible.
• Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing explored the malls in Snake Mouth District and discussed his White Mask, which Liu Jingqing feared might make him seem replaced by a ghost.
• A Sheep Doll beside a ball pit repeatedly cried, "Found you!" as children gathered around it.
• Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing realized that everyone and everything with eyes seemed to glance at them, so they hurried out of the mall.
• The staff inspecting the Sheep Doll also turned their heads to look at Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing as they passed.

Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing realized the Vengeful Ghost might be watching them through the eyes of people around [Snake Mouth District], and the players explored the shopping area under constant observation. Shen Hai suggested their tour may have taught the ghost to enter every part of the district, potentially eliminating their safest hiding places.

• Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing left the mall and hid in Central Park after passersby repeatedly gave them eerie glances.
• Qin Manjiang suspected the ghost was using the players’ exploration to learn the district and might be watching them through other people’s eyes.
• Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing explored the Underground Garage, while the other groups surveyed quieter areas and encountered the same strange stares.
• As crowds increased in the evening, the players checked the malls’ elevators, stairs, and walkways before gathering in Central Park.
• Shen Hai proposed that the ghost might avoid places it did not know, but their exploration may have taught it to enter the entire district.

Qin Manjiang and the other five players waited in Snake Mouth District for a ghostly hide-and-seek game to begin, while Yi Yu reported escaping water ghosts on a jet ski. A red map appeared before them, and the rules announced that one of the six would be randomly chosen as the ghost, prompting everyone to run in different directions.

• Qin Manjiang completed his check-in at Guanyin Flat Lake and texted Yi Yu, who said he had escaped water ghosts on a jet ski.
• Qin Manjiang and Xia Nan searched the police system but found no record of incidents in Snake Mouth District.
• As midnight approached, Qin Manjiang, Zheng Jun, Liu Jingqing, Nie Yunzhen, Shen Hai, and Chen Zhiyuan gathered on the pedestrian street to await the game.
• A glowing red map of Snake Mouth District appeared in the six players' vision, followed by rules stating that the game would begin in ten minutes and one player would be selected as the ghost.
• Shen Hai and Chen Zhiyuan ran in separate directions along with the other players.

Qin Manjiang was chosen as the ghost in the Hide-and-Seek game, and the red map revealed seven points of light despite there being only six Players. When the points suddenly shifted, he realized the map showed delayed positions, leaving him unsure how to locate the real ghost among them.

• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai questioned how the game could avoid guaranteeing a death, while the Players spread out and hid across Snake Mouth District.
• The game began, and Qin Manjiang received the notice that he had been chosen as the ghost with a two-hour time limit.
• Qin Manjiang saw six other points of light on the map, making seven in total when he counted his own position.
• Qin Manjiang watched a point of light appear near the parking garage and initially suspected it belonged to a teleporting ghost.
• Qin Manjiang fled as every other point of light shifted at once, then concluded that the map displayed Players' positions with a delay of several minutes.

Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing realized a real ghost was hunting among the Players, while the Red Map showed their locations with a three-minute delay. Liu Jingqing fled toward the Shopping Malls, but the ghost caught sight of her near the Musical Fountain.

• Qin Manjiang deduced that one of the Red Map's seven dots represented a real ghost and rushed toward the Shopping Malls to find the other Players first.
• Liu Jingqing saw a ghostly white figure descend the steps by the Musical Fountain and realized she was a hider rather than the designated ghost.
• Liu Jingqing watched the Red Map's dots shift, then ran from the Street Garden toward the Shopping Malls when two dots appeared nearby.
• Liu Jingqing discovered that a dot overlapping her position marked where the ghost had been three minutes earlier.
• Liu Jingqing spotted the ghost staring at her through a gap in the Musical Fountain.

Liu Jingqing was trapped between two Vengeful Ghosts while hiding in the street garden, but a sudden realization made her sprint toward the ghost by the fountain. The chapter ends before revealing what she remembered or whether her gamble would save her.

• Liu Jingqing fled from a Vengeful Ghost approaching the musical fountain and hid in bushes in the street garden.
• Liu Jingqing realized the ghosts tracked players through delayed points of light rather than sensing their exact locations.
• A second Vengeful Ghost appeared in the middle of the street garden, leaving Liu Jingqing trapped between both ghosts.
• As the ghosts closed in, Liu Jingqing remembered something, scrambled out of the bushes, and ran toward the Vengeful Ghost by the fountain.

Liu Jingqing recognized Qin Manjiang as the player posing as the Vengeful Ghost and escaped the real ghost by letting Qin find her. As Qin raced to locate the remaining players, Shen Hai devised a way to reveal his location to him without alerting the real ghost.

• Liu Jingqing inferred from Qin Manjiang's choice to go around the fountain that he was human, ran into his arms, and was marked as found by him.
• Qin Manjiang told Liu Jingqing to hide, learned how she had distinguished him from the real ghost, and hurried toward the mall to find the others.
• Qin Manjiang noticed three player markers clustered in Building Two and suspected they were still hiding in the Shopping Square.
• Shen Hai realized the map's markers were delayed and decided to make the human player playing the ghost discover his location.
• Shen Hai left the Covered Bridge after coming up with a plan based on the players sharing a memory.

Zheng Jun studied the delayed map dots and reasoned that a real ghost had joined the game, then left his hiding place to seek safety in the Street Garden. At the third-floor elevator, he saw its display changing floors and realized someone was inside.

• Zheng Jun confirmed that the map dots updated at intervals and deduced that one dot had vanished after someone was found in the Street Garden.
• Zheng Jun concluded that a seventh dot represented a real ghost threatening the player acting as the seeker.
• Zheng Jun decided to leave the seventh-floor fire escape and head for the Street Garden, which he thought the ghost had already left.
• Zheng Jun considered taking the elevator to the basement and circling to the Street Garden through the parking lot.
• Zheng Jun reached the third-floor elevator and watched its display change from Floor 1 to Floor 2.

Zheng Jun fled a real Vengeful Ghost through the mall stairwell after hanging up on Liu Jingqing, while Qin Manjiang rushed in as the player acting as the ghost. Just as the Vengeful Ghost reached Zheng Jun, someone grabbed his long hair from below.

• Zheng Jun ignored Liu Jingqing’s call, then saw a real ghost emerge from the elevator and realized it had located him.
• Zheng Jun crept down the stairs, but spotted the ghost’s pale feet at the landing and ran.
• Qin Manjiang heard someone rushing down the stairs and charged in, hoping to find players before the real ghost did.
• The Vengeful Ghost leaped down the stairwell after Zheng Jun, who stumbled and fell onto the landing between the second and first floors.
• As the Vengeful Ghost reached for Zheng Jun, someone grabbed his hair and panted that his long hair had come in handy.

Qin Manjiang rescued Zheng Jun from the real ghost, while Shen Hai used the mall speakers to direct the players toward the Coffee Shop. As Qin Manjiang rushed to the Broadcast Room and Chen Zhiyuan tried to leave for the Coffee Shop, the ghost’s approach put both plans in danger.

• Qin Manjiang saved Zheng Jun from the real ghost, and Zheng Jun told him that Shen Hai and Chen Zhiyuan were hiding in the mall.
• Shen Hai broadcast a message telling everyone to meet at the usual place, which Zheng Jun realized meant the Coffee Shop.
• Qin Manjiang understood Shen Hai’s plan but ran toward the Broadcast Room, fearing the real ghost would reach Shen Hai first.
• Chen Zhiyuan heard Shen Hai’s message and decided to head to the Coffee Shop, but Nie Yunzhen grabbed him and warned that the ghost had come upstairs.
• Nie Yunzhen told Chen Zhiyuan to stay hidden.

Nie Yunzhen and Chen Zhiyuan tried to escape the fifth floor while Shen Hai used a recorded broadcast to lure the ghost away. Shen Hai revealed that he had recognized Qin Manjiang by the ghost’s floating gait, but the contest continued because the other players were still in danger.

• Shen Hai broadcast that he was still at the usual meeting place, giving Nie Yunzhen and Chen Zhiyuan a chance to leave their hiding place.
• Nie Yunzhen and Chen Zhiyuan ran for the escalators, but they started moving and carried Nie Yunzhen back toward the fifth floor as the ghost appeared above them.
• Nie Yunzhen realized the ghost floated and fled toward the stairwell while Chen Zhiyuan took a separate route.
• In the first-floor café, Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that he had left a phone playing a recording in the Broadcast Room and had watched the ghost from the Covered Bridge.
• Shen Hai identified Qin Manjiang because Qin walked while the ghost floated, and Qin learned that the contest had not ended because the remaining players were still at risk.

Chen Zhiyuan drew the ghost’s attention away from Nie Yunzhen, but she was trapped when another ghost appeared at the Freight Elevator. Qin Manjiang pulled her into the elevator, and she survived.

• Qin Manjiang realized Chen Zhiyuan had not arrived at the café and rushed upstairs as the escalator began moving.
• Chen Zhiyuan saw the ghost heading toward Nie Yunzhen and shouted to draw its attention, lowering his own chances of survival.
• Nie Yunzhen made noise in the Fifth Floor stairwell to lure the ghost away, then hid beside the entrance.
• The ghost stopped at the Fifth Floor stairwell after hearing Chen Zhiyuan, then emerged and floated toward the escalator without seeing Nie Yunzhen.
• The Freight Elevator opened beside Nie Yunzhen, and an identical ghost reached for her from inside.
• Qin Manjiang pulled Nie Yunzhen into the elevator before the doors closed and greeted her as First Seat.

Qin Manjiang used Shen Hai’s recording to convince Chen Zhiyuan and complete the first stage without anyone dying. The second stage began immediately, and as the group searched for the Vengeful Ghost, a creature bearing Zheng Jun’s face crawled down the Shopping Mall stairs.

• Qin Manjiang played Shen Hai’s recording, convincing Chen Zhiyuan that he was not the Vengeful Ghost and had come to save him.
• The first stage ended with all players alive, but the group remained paralyzed until the second stage began.
• The players learned they had two hours to find the Vengeful Ghost, and Liu Jingqing ran to join the others at the Shopping Mall Building.
• Liu Jingqing said she felt watched, prompting Qin Manjiang and the others to rush outside while injured Zheng Jun struggled to follow.
• Chen Zhiyuan stopped to help Zheng Jun after hearing him call for the group to wait, then heard the same words echo from inside the Shopping Mall.
• A limbless creature with Zheng Jun’s face crawled down the dark stairs.

Qin Manjiang and the others investigated the ghost at the fountain, where Nie Yunzhen was dragged into the shallow pool by living hair and rescued. After they noticed Zheng Jun and Chen Zhiyuan were missing, Liu Jingqing sensed the ghost nearby and saw the water turn blood-red.

• Nie Yunzhen found wet footprints leading from the steps to the fountain and spotted hair and a human-shaped shadow beneath the water.
• Dense hair burst from the pool and wrapped around Nie Yunzhen’s ankles, but Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing pulled her out while Shen Hai cut the hair free.
• Qin Manjiang noticed that Zheng Jun and Chen Zhiyuan had not caught up with the group.
• Liu Jingqing saw the fountain water turn blood-red, collapsed in terror, and told Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai that the ghost was very close.

Shen Hai left to protect Chen Zhiyuan while Qin Manjiang investigated Liu Jingqing’s strange connection to the ghost. After her hair and footprint matched the evidence, Qin suspected that the district held six ghosts, each linked to one of them, and warned himself that separated companions might be impossible to distinguish from their ghosts.

• Shen Hai walked toward the Shopping Mall to find Chen Zhiyuan, while Qin Manjiang stayed with Nie Yunzhen and Liu Jingqing.
• Qin Manjiang asked Liu Jingqing to describe what she had sensed, and she said she could feel the ghost watching them.
• Qin Manjiang suspected that Liu Jingqing might be the ghost, then compared her dark brown, curly hair with the hair that had wrapped around Nie Yunzhen’s ankle.
• Liu Jingqing’s bare foot matched the wet footprint, but Qin Manjiang said he was considering whether the ghost was her counterpart from a Parallel Space-Time.
• Qin Manjiang noted that the instructions never specified the number of ghosts and suspected that six ghosts, each connected to one of them, were in Snake Mouth District.

Liu Jingqing’s strange connection to the ghost caused the fountain pool to become unnaturally deep, trapping her and Qin Manjiang as hair closed in underwater. Nie Yunzhen saw Liu Jingqing as a bloated corpse, while Qin Manjiang saw her unchanged and dove down to investigate the hair.

• Liu Jingqing grew cold and blue, then dragged Qin Manjiang into the fountain pool with unnatural strength.
• Qin Manjiang found himself unable to reach the bottom or swim toward shore as the water rose, while Liu Jingqing floated motionless.
• Nie Yunzhen ran toward the shopping mall to find a pole, after seeing what appeared to be Liu Jingqing’s bloated corpse in the pool.
• Qin Manjiang saw clumps of hair closing in through the water and noticed they ignored Liu Jingqing.
• Qin Manjiang switched on his phone flashlight and plunged underwater to investigate.

Qin Manjiang found a corpse resembling Liu Jingqing beneath the fountain pool and questioned whether it was the Vengeful Ghost, while Zheng Jun and Chen Zhiyuan followed a voice into the Shopping Mall stairwell. The chapter left both groups facing apparent ghosts without confirming which one they had correctly identified.

• Qin Manjiang saw a bloated corpse resembling Liu Jingqing beneath the pool and wondered whether the second stage required distinguishing the real Liu Jingqing from the ghost.
• Qin Manjiang realized the fountain pool was the same place where he had found Liu Jingqing during the first stage, making him doubt his conclusion about the corpse.
• Zheng Jun heard a voice identical to his own calling out, and he and Chen Zhiyuan decided the speaker was the Vengeful Ghost.
• Chen Zhiyuan helped Zheng Jun enter the Shopping Mall and approach the dark first-floor stairwell where the voice had come from.
• Zheng Jun and Chen Zhiyuan saw a limbless humanoid figure with Zheng Jun's face squirming on the stairwell steps.

Zheng Jun and Chen Zhiyuan became trapped in a looping stairwell filled with their own inexplicable reflections. Chen Zhiyuan discovered that the stairs grew shorter each time he climbed them, leaving the pair to face an increasingly strange puzzle.

• Zheng Jun saw countless heads protruding from the stairwell railings, including what appeared to be his own, and found that the corridor entrance had vanished.
• Zheng Jun panicked and blamed Chen Zhiyuan, then apologized after remembering that Chen Zhiyuan had helped him despite his injuries.
• Chen Zhiyuan climbed the stairs and reappeared behind Zheng Jun, confirming that the stairwell looped back on itself.
• At Zheng Jun's suggestion, Chen Zhiyuan leaned around the top corner and appeared with his head at the bottom of the stairs while his body remained above.
• Chen Zhiyuan noticed the staircase was shrinking, counted the steps, and confirmed that one step had disappeared.

Qin Manjiang uncovered how the Second Stage of Hide-and-Seek worked and cleared it, only to find that each person had to find a ghost individually. Meanwhile, Zheng Jun realized the stairwell might have been shaped by his thoughts as its steps kept disappearing, and Chen Zhiyuan set out to test what would happen if he went down.

• Qin Manjiang learned from Liu Jingqing that a ghost had seized and split her during the first stage, then merged with her to create the Second Stage puzzle.
• Qin Manjiang touched the ghost’s location and cleared the Second Stage, vanishing into a dark space to wait for the others.
• Zheng Jun noticed that the stairwell had lost one step per minute and feared that he and Chen Zhiyuan would fall into the endless space when the steps ran out.
• Zheng Jun connected the stairwell to his thoughts about mirrors and infinity, concluding that the ghost could read his mind and had used his ideas to shape the place.
• Chen Zhiyuan pointed down the staircase and said he wanted to try going down, prompting Zheng Jun to notice that Chen Zhiyuan was acting strangely.

Shen Hai deduced that Qin Manjiang’s ghost might have no fixed location and urged Nie Yunzhen to stop hesitating and help keep Qin Manjiang alive. When Nie Yunzhen ran into a hidden passage behind a wall, Shen Hai followed her inside and openly mocked her as unworthy of being First Seat.

• Shen Hai asked whether Nie Yunzhen had used her [Shared-Fate Lock], and she revealed through her reaction that she had tied her fate to Qin Manjiang.
• Shen Hai recognized that the figure on the escalator was not Chen Zhiyuan and told Nie Yunzhen to hurry before Qin Manjiang died.
• Nie Yunzhen remembered her duty to keep Qin Manjiang alive and rushed toward the Fifth Floor with Shen Hai following.
• On the Fifth Floor, Nie Yunzhen heard hurried footsteps inside a solid wall and backed into it, passing through into a narrow passage lined with differently shaded red doors.
• Shen Hai followed Nie Yunzhen into the passage and mocked her hesitation, declaring that she did not deserve to be First Seat.