Recaps

Qiao Ziruo searched the dark ninth floor of Baihong Building for clues about the ghost, while Qin Manjiang waited outside, unable to help her. When the ghost reached the floor, Qiao Ziruo hid behind a pillar, and its footsteps stopped on the other side.

• Qin Manjiang waited outside Baihong Building for Qiao Ziruo’s call and worried that the Ghost Story Game had drawn her in because of him.
• Qiao Ziruo explored the unrenovated ninth floor, reasoning that she needed to identify the ghost and discover what it was searching for.
• Qiao Ziruo heard footsteps and something being dragged up the fire escape, then realized the ghost might have followed the elevator’s display to the ninth floor.
• Qiao Ziruo hid in darkness behind a load-bearing pillar, but the ghost’s footsteps stopped on the other side.

Qiao Ziruo hid from the Vengeful Ghost on the Ninth Floor and tried to escape by matching its footsteps as she moved around a pillar. She realized the ghost had found her through her shadow, then discovered its severed head and spine had been dragging behind its walking body.

• Qiao Ziruo hid behind a load-bearing pillar and listened as the Vengeful Ghost moved nearby.
• Qiao Ziruo timed her steps to the ghost’s footsteps and successfully moved around the pillar without being heard.
• The ghost stopped moving, and Qiao Ziruo realized her shadow had exposed her in the moonlight.
• Qiao Ziruo turned and saw the ghost’s severed head attached to a bloody spine at her heels.
• Qiao Ziruo realized the dragging sound came from the head and spine trailing behind the ghost’s legs.

Qiao Ziruo faced the Vengeful Ghost on the ninth floor of the Baihong Building, but Qin Manjiang used a helicopter’s powerful lights to give her a chance to escape. She chose to retreat and return later, while Qin Manjiang revealed to Yang that the Game was a side story he had accidentally triggered.

• Qiao Ziruo froze in terror when she saw the Vengeful Ghost’s bloody head and spine on the ninth floor.
• Qin Manjiang illuminated the floor from a helicopter and warned Qiao Ziruo that the ghost perceived light and darkness oppositely.
• Qiao Ziruo ran toward the emergency stairwell, intending to return later and find what the ghost was searching for.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that he had called Yang, who flew the helicopter and brought Bai family members to the Baihong Building.
• Yang asked Qin Manjiang about the month-long Ghost Story Game system upgrade, and Qin Manjiang said the Game was a side story he had accidentally triggered.

Qin Manjiang questioned Yang about his past and asked if he was about to die, while Qiao Ziruo went to the surveillance room to identify the ghost pursuing her. Qiao Ziruo began reviewing footage, but the chapter left her alone with Lao Zhang as danger approached.

• Yang told Qin Manjiang that the Ten Seats appeared after the Ghost Story Game upgraded its system following Yang's arrival.
• Yang said Qin Manjiang had changed, and Qin Manjiang blamed it on having driven another personality out of his body.
• Qin Manjiang asked Yang if he was about to die.
• Qiao Ziruo returned to the first floor and asked a security guard to take her to the surveillance room so she could identify the ghost from the footage.
• The young guard warned Lao Zhang to be careful, then left as Lao Zhang began pulling up footage from the building's hallways.

Qiao Ziruo found the half-bodied Vengeful Ghost on the security footage and realized it might be searching for its missing upper body. After the ghost killed the old security guard, she recognized its elevator-maintenance trousers and suspected its body was in the elevator shaft, then saw a possible clue to why it had not attacked her earlier.

• Qiao Ziruo searched the surveillance footage and spotted the Vengeful Ghost dragging its spine and head through a dark corridor.
• The ghost approached the surveillance room after the old security guard spoke, and Qiao Ziruo searched the room for a way to defend herself.
• Qiao Ziruo found a high-powered flashlight, but the old security guard struck her with his baton and took it.
• The ghost entered, and the old security guard shone the flashlight toward it; the ghost killed him by making him strangle himself.
• Qiao Ziruo noticed the ghost wore elevator-maintenance trousers and suspected its missing upper body lay at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
• As the ghost turned toward her, Qiao Ziruo realized it had seen her before without attacking and wondered whether it had been confirming something.

Qiao Ziruo realized the Vengeful Ghost might attack only after seeing her face, so she turned her back to it and waited. Outside, Yang told Qin Manjiang he planned to pursue a chance to leave the Ghost Story Game and asked him to help the others find a way forward if he died.

• Qiao Ziruo inferred that the Vengeful Ghost could not recognize its own upper body from behind, and she turned away to avoid showing it her face.
• The Old Security Guard died from suffocation while Qiao Ziruo stood motionless, hoping her theory would keep her alive.
• Qin Manjiang deduced that Yang was preparing to take on a challenge that might unlock a way to leave the game.
• Yang explained that he wanted to give others hope, inspired by someone who had died, and believed the game needed a finish line.
• Yang told Qin Manjiang he would pursue the chance to leave even if it might be a trap, and asked him to help everyone find another way if he died.

Yang explained that Spirit Pupils were human eyes capable of seeing ghosts and showed Qin Manjiang the horrific world he perceived. Yang wondered which version of reality was real, and Qin Manjiang discovered that the ghost story “Lost Item” had been cleared.

• Yang asked Qin Manjiang what Spirit Pupils were, and Qin realized they might be human eyes that ghosts seized to form ghost stories.
• Yang confirmed that Spirit Pupils belonged to people who could see ghosts and explained that accumulating them made players perceive more of the supernatural world.
• Yang touched Qin’s shoulder, letting Qin briefly see Fu City as a ruined place beneath an enormous eyeball, with distorted people and buildings.
• Yang told Qin that he could no longer distinguish the real world from the world he saw and wondered whether the ghosts were people living under different rules.
• Qin shook Yang out of his troubled state, and Yang said he wanted to clear the game to discover which world was real.
• Qin opened [Eye Realm] and saw the message that the ghost story “Lost Item” had been cleared.

After Qiao Ziruo survived the game, Qin Manjiang discovered that his Spirit Pupil points as a Proxy and as Abyss were combined, and that he could redeem permanent items. He brought the unconscious Qiao Ziruo home, while Yang’s revelation about Spirit Pupils left him questioning what the Ghost Story Game was building toward.

• Qin Manjiang found that his Proxy and Abyss Spirit Pupil points were combined, totaling one hundred, and opened the Permanent Item page.
• Qin Manjiang caught Qiao Ziruo when she collapsed outside the Baihong Building and realized Yang had disappeared.
• Qin Manjiang carried the feverish Qiao Ziruo home, where Mi Qiao reluctantly helped look after her.
• Qin Manjiang reflected on Yang’s vision and wondered whether Spirit Pupils altered perception as well as revealing abnormalities.
• Qin Manjiang considered what the world would look like if one person possessed all the Spirit Pupils collected by the Ghost Story Game.

Zhong Xueran experienced nested dreams in which the world’s colors were distorted and her face appeared badly rotted, then woke to find a call record from the future before waking again. After confirming with Xu Yi that she was awake, he wondered whether she had begun seeing it too, while Qin Manjiang exchanged one hundred Spirit Pupils for a permanent item.

• Zhong Xueran dreamed that the world’s colors had changed and that the people around her turned toward her with malicious smiles.
• Zhong Xueran woke and found a call to Yang listed at 7:56 a.m., even though her phone showed 7:45, before seeing her rotted face reflected on the screen.
• Zhong Xueran woke from another dream, found no call record, and phoned Xu Yi, who asked whether she had noticed changes in what she saw.
• Xu Yi smiled after Zhong Xueran hung up, then wondered whether she had started seeing it too.
• Qin Manjiang used the [Eye Realm] to exchange one hundred Spirit Pupils for a permanent item.

Qin Manjiang endured a painful redemption process and received a Permanent Item in the form of a doll resembling himself. He learned that it could remove a Vengeful Ghost’s identified ability at the cost of one of his positive emotions, but failure would burden him with one of the ghost’s negative emotions, so he chose not to use it.

• Qin Manjiang’s redemption plunged him into an eerie red realm, where a storm of painful emotions and voices made him collapse and lose consciousness.
• Qin Manjiang woke at noon with a palm-sized doll that looked like him and discovered it was his Permanent Item, named “Me.”
• Qin Manjiang read the item’s description and learned it could permanently eliminate one identified ability of a Vengeful Ghost, sacrificing one of his positive emotions if successful.
• Qin Manjiang learned that a failed attempt would permanently give him one of the ghost’s negative emotions, and he worried that this could turn him into a ghost.
• Qin Manjiang put the doll away and wondered what price Yang’s scene-reversing Permanent Item carried.

Qin Manyi recalled her family, her strange brother, and the bizarre figures only she could see in Lower River Village. Qin Manjiang visited her in the psychiatric hospital and told her to get ready for discharge, leaving her hopeful that he would help her leave for good.

• Qin Manyi described her father Qin Linghan, her brother Qin Manjiang, and their dwindling village school, then recalled how Li Xijiu became Qin Manjiang’s friend.
• Qin Manyi recounted seeing uncanny figures with distorted eyes around Lower River Village, though no one else could see them.
• Qin Manjiang read Qin Manyi’s diary until she caught him, then asked how her mental assessment had gone.
• Qin Manjiang explained that redeeming the Permanent Item called “Me” had left him bedridden for a week, while the class president had left after apparently guessing his connection to the Game.
• Qin Manjiang told Qin Manyi to prepare for immediate discharge, and she asked whether it would be temporary or permanent.

Qin Manjiang took Qin Manyi out of Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital with Doctor Xi Wutong, planning to investigate her background on the trip back to Lower River Village. After learning she came from Moon City, he confronted her about a twenty-year-old corpse-dismemberment case connected to Nie Yunzhen.

• Qin Manjiang asked Qin Manyi about the strange-eyed people she had seen in Lower River Village, but she said she could not discuss her Beginner Level experience yet.
• Doctor Xi Wutong brought paperwork and drove Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi away from the psychiatric hospital.
• Qin Manyi fell asleep peacefully in the back seat while Qin Manjiang questioned Xi Wutong about her work and hometown.
• Xi Wutong said she had come from Moon City, where she had investigated mysterious cases.
• Qin Manjiang accused Xi Wutong of neglecting her work because she had forgotten the Moon City Corpse-Dismemberment Case involving Nie Yunzhen.

Qin Manjiang and his companions reached the outskirts of Lower River Village, where the [Eye Realm] revealed a ghost story it could not detect or catalog. He refused to enter and sent Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong into the village while he waited outside.

• Qin Manyi woke from a forgotten nightmare as the car traveled toward her hometown, Lower River Village.
• Qin Manjiang explained that the village had become a popular destination for people interested in strange happenings, while Qin Manyi heard funeral music that Xi Wutong could not hear.
• Qin Manjiang stopped the car after the [Eye Realm] warned that an unknown ghost story was beyond its detection and absolutely prohibited him from entering its range.
• Qin Manjiang chose not to enter Lower River Village and asked Qin Manyi to offer incense to their father for him.
• Qin Manyi agreed to take Xi Wutong into the village while Qin Manjiang waited by the road.

Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong entered Lower River Village while Qin Manjiang remained outside after sensing something on his phone. At her father’s grave, Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that Li Xijiu had visited last month, leaving him stunned by the realization that Li Xijiu was still alive.

• Qin Manjiang decided not to enter Lower River Village after checking his phone, and Qin Manyi directed Xi Wutong through the crowded village.
• Xi Wutong noticed that the bustling village felt strangely quiet as she drove Qin Manyi to Village Chief Wang’s home.
• Village Chief Wang told Qin Manyi that Li Xijiu had visited her father’s grave on the anniversary of his death for the past three years.
• Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong went to her father’s grave, where Qin Manyi spotted signs that someone had recently paid their respects.
• Qin Manyi video-called Qin Manjiang and showed him the grave, then revealed that Li Xijiu had visited last month.
• Qin Manjiang was overwhelmed by the news and realized that Li Xijiu was still alive.

Qin Manjiang learned that Li Xijiu was alive and left Lower River Village with Qin Manyi, while Doctor Xi stayed behind to investigate the village. They returned to Fu City, where Qin Manyi met their tenant, Mi Qiao, and the story left them preparing for a long stay together before a new instance.

• Qin Manjiang realized Li Xijiu had likely stayed in contact with his family, confirming that he was alive, and decided not to enter the unsettling Lower River Village.
• Xi Wutong gave Qin Manjiang her car keys and stayed in Lower River Village to investigate, while Qin Manjiang drove away with Qin Manyi.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that her Beginner Level ghost story was called “Assimilation.”
• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi returned to Fu City late at night, and he explained that Qin Manyi would sleep in his room because hers was rented out.
• Qin Manjiang introduced Qin Manyi to their tenant, Mi Qiao, who welcomed her as a likely long-term housemate.

After a month of peaceful living, Qin Manjiang and the other players were pulled back into the Ghost Story Game, which launched three rounds at once. Qin Manjiang was conscripted for the third round, the challenge-mode strange tale Candy Game.

• Qin Manjiang spent a quiet month with Qin Manyi, Xiaobai, and Mi Qiao while acquaintances invited him to various activities.
• On November 6, every player's heart was struck with pain as the Ghost Story Game returned and announced that players were assembling.
• The first multiplayer round, Wedding Dress, conscripted Home Flower, Zishu, Abu, Ranpo-san, and Poetic Sentiment.
• The second multiplayer round, Don't Speak, conscripted Loves Sweets, Bajie, Hard Drive, Ziruo, and Nie Yunzhen; Qin Manjiang recognized Ziruo as Qiao Ziruo, the class monitor.
• The game announced a third round in challenge mode: Candy Game, conscripting Abyss, Player, White Sandalwood, Dao Eye Clouds and Mist, Swimming Fish, and Yezi, including Qin Manjiang under the alias Abyss.

Qin Manjiang was selected for the Candy Game and learned that players could clear it either by unraveling its ghost story or by winning the game. As he prepared to meet Shen Hai, he asked Qin Manyi to help Qiao Ziruo but warned her against entering the game.

• Qin Manjiang noticed that Shen Hai had also been selected for three games in a row as the players received the Candy Game opening lines.
• The game announced that players had to arrive at Blue Bay Villas by midnight the next day and could clear the level by solving the ghost story or winning the game.
• Qin Manjiang realized the two ways to survive could set the players against each other.
• Qin Manjiang told Qin Manyi to look after Qiao Ziruo, but then warned her not to risk entering the game because she had not been selected.
• Shen Hai called Qin Manjiang and arranged to meet him beforehand at Catface Café.

Yu Ruoli joined the other five players at Catface Café to discuss how they would survive the upcoming ghost story at Blue Bay Villas. They all agreed to cooperate, but Qin Manjiang suspected Shen Hai had been prepared to kill anyone who chose to compete for the Candy Game.

• Yu Ruoli arrived last at Catface Café, where Shen Hai, Yang Liuye, Qin Manjiang, Tan Murong, and Xu Youqing had gathered before the game at Blue Bay Villas.
• Shen Hai asked whether the group would cooperate to unravel the ghost story or compete to become the Candy Game’s sole winner; everyone chose cooperation.
• Shen Hai proposed killing anyone who harmed the group, and Qin Manjiang suggested they stay together at Blue Bay Villas; Shen Hai agreed.
• Xu Youqing shared what he had learned about the abandoned villas beside the Ming River, and the group discussed the brief Opening Lines.
• After the others left, Qin Manjiang asked whether Shen Hai would have killed them if anyone had chosen competition; Shen Hai laughed and said competitors could be killed to win outright.

Tan Murong, an exhausted office worker facing another Ghost Story Game, drank at Sister Lin’s bar and spoke about how work had consumed her life. She left with Sister Lin’s kindness on her mind and a small reason to return: finishing the wine she had left behind.

• Tan Murong asked her boss for time off before her next Ghost Story Game, but was told she could take only two days.
• Tan Murong went to Sister Lin’s bar and drank wine, telling Sister Lin that she wondered whether her life had any point beyond work and fleeting hours of personal time.
• Tan Murong drunkenly admitted that she expected to die in the Ghost Story Game, then fell asleep at the table.
• Sister Lin let Tan Murong keep the unfinished wine for another visit and urged her to stay alive.
• Tan Murong left the bar, regretting that she had burdened Sister Lin but feeling glad she had somewhere to talk, and resolved to return for the rest of the wine.

On November 7, Xu Youqing, Qin Manjiang, Shen Hai, and the others crossed the Ming River to enter Blue Bay Villa for the Candy Game. Qin Manjiang warned that the game had no stated time limit, and the group arrived at the villa district as the rain continued.

• The group discussed whether to scout Blue Bay Villa and Qin Manjiang pointed out that the game could continue indefinitely if they failed to clear it.
• Yu Ruoli announced that the boat had arrived, and the group boarded with a boat owner who warned them about homeless people in unfinished villas.
• Xu Youqing asked the boat owner about strange rumors, but he said there were no hauntings at Blue Bay Villa.
• Yu Ruoli thanked Qin Manjiang for his help and showed him the portrait she had drawn; he said it did not look like him and asked her to draw another after he got a haircut.
• The boat reached Blue Bay Villa as the rain continued.

The six players entered the oppressive Blue Bay Villa District ahead of the midnight Candy Game and found a furnished, spotless villa marked No. 666. They settled inside as Qin Manjiang struggled with his heightened fear, and the chapter ended with Yu Ruoli startling him by appearing behind him.

• Xu Youqing explained that the river bend should have had good feng shui, but the still water and stopped wind made the villa district feel dead.
• Shen Hai suggested that the six find a relatively complete villa and wait there, and everyone agreed.
• The group found the completed Blue Bay Villas No. 666 and decided to investigate it.
• Shen Hai kicked open the locked door, and the group found a decorated, spotless living room with working electricity.
• Qin Manjiang sat beside Yu Ruoli on the sofa after she startled him by speaking from behind.

At midnight, the Candy Game began as a terrifying girl announced its rules and summoned five trays for the first round. Shen Hai discovered that blood could be exchanged for candy, while a blood-covered monster rushed toward the villa, leaving the others scrambling to find something red.

• Qin Manjiang grew increasingly fearful as the six participants waited for the Game to begin.
• At midnight, a dripping girl appeared on the ceiling and announced six rounds of the Candy Game, starting with five candies.
• The girl instructed the participants to find unique red objects in the villa and exchange them for candy, which they had to eat immediately.
• Shen Hai cut his palm and discovered that his blood turned into a candy; after eating it, a red glow appeared around him.
• A blood-covered woman appeared outside and charged toward the living room, while the other participants rushed to search for red objects.

Tan Murong and the other players searched the restored villa for red objects to turn into candy while a female ghost hunted them. After Qin Manjiang secretly forced Shen Hai’s red glow into a tray and ate the resulting candy, Shen Hai confronted him.

• Tan Murong reasoned that the villa had been restored to the way it looked when the family from the Opening Lines lived there and searched the second-floor bedrooms for something red.
• Xu Youqing hid behind a living-room curtain, planning to use his red underwear, while Shen Hai tested whether the female ghost would react to him opening another curtain.
• Qin Manjiang startled Xu Youqing by revealing he had been hiding beside him, and the two learned that the female ghost had left the living room.
• Xu Youqing put his red underwear into a white tray, which transformed it into a piece of candy.
• Qin Manjiang pressed Shen Hai’s glowing body into a tray, absorbed his red light into a candy, and ate it before asking whether Shen Hai enjoyed using people for experiments.

Qin Manjiang confronted Shen Hai over his reckless use of the others as bait, then recruited Xu Youqing to investigate the ghost story during their red-glow invincibility period. Outside, Yu Ruoli found a red flower, but the Vengeful Ghost appeared above her and the Game declared the entire team wiped out.

• Qin Manjiang ate the candy, challenged Shen Hai, and accused him of treating Xu Youqing and him as expendable test subjects.
• Shen Hai left the living room, and Qin Manjiang explained to Xu Youqing that the red glow protected them until the next round and proposed investigating the ghost story.
• Qin Manjiang and Xu Youqing agreed to work together, while Qin Manjiang revealed he had considered reddening his own face to test whether it could be exchanged for candy.
• Yu Ruoli circled through the storm to the front courtyard and picked a red flower, hoping to earn one of the remaining candies.
• The Vengeful Ghost appeared upside down beneath the third-floor eaves, and Yu Ruoli's phone displayed the message that the entire team had been wiped out.

The Players survived the first round of the Ghost Story Game, but Yang Liuye was killed when her red dress failed to become candy because someone had already supplied the same kind of item. The game began its second round, ordering the five survivors to turn into objects inside the villa and hide as a sixty-second countdown started.

• Qin Manjiang smashed a third-floor window to distract the Vengeful Ghost from Yu Ruoli, then admitted to Xu Youqing that fear had left his legs frozen.
• Yu Ruoli used her sketchbook to distract the ghost while Yang Liuye tried to turn a red dress into candy, but the dress burned because an identical item had already been used.
• The Vengeful Ghost caught Yang Liuye and twisted her head backward, killing her before Qin Manjiang and Xu Youqing could intervene.
• Tan Murong placed a pressure cooker's safety valve in the final tray, received a candy, and joined the other Players beneath the chandelier.
• The little girl's voice announced round two: four candies, transform into things inside the villa, and hide; a sixty-second countdown began as the five Players scattered.