Chapter Summaries

After a girl shattered into frozen pieces at Moon Bay, Qin Manjiang reported her death and calmly recounted what he had witnessed to the police. Fang Xiu identified the victim as Chen Qiu, and Qin told him he knew who was killing people.

• Flower told Kong that a suspected Ghost Story phenomenon at Riverside had killed a girl, and Kong urged her to use the incident as a chance to return to Moon City's Game.
• Qin Manjiang called the Moon City Police Station to report a homicide at the Moon Bay viewing steps.
• Wang Pingchang and Fang Xiu examined the victim's frozen remains and found the murder scene gruesome.
• Qin calmly described how the victim shattered when he patted her shoulder, then asked why there were no surveillance cameras nearby.
• Fang Xiu identified the victim as Chen Qiu by a birthmark on her face, and Qin noticed Fang's reaction.
• Qin told Fang that he was there to help and asked whether Fang knew who was doing the killing.

Qin Manjiang learned that Moon City's [Eye Realm] had chosen a deadly alternative to its final game, while Fang Xiu suspected Qin Manjiang was connected to the killings. The chapter ended with Qin Manjiang spotting a watcher as Kong warned that players might be becoming ghosts to hunt one another.

• Fang Xiu returned to Captain Wang Pingchang after questioning Qin Manjiang, and both men said Qin Manjiang looked familiar.
• Kong told Qin Manjiang that Flower had withdrawn and warned him to leave because Moon City's [Eye Realm] was dangerous.
• Kong explained that players could either light ten Spirit Pupils and let most players return to reality, or collect nine hundred and ninety-nine Spirit Pupils for one player to gain an extra life while the others were erased.
• Kong said Moon City's players might have forged a third path by merging with a Permanent Item, becoming a ghost story, and hunting the other forty-eight players until ten remained.
• Qin Manjiang noticed a tall, thin figure leaving the crowd, and his Doll called out for blood.

Kong sent Dog to protect Qin Manjiang, suspecting that Qin Manjiang’s identity was merging with Jiang Du’s. At the police station, Captain Wang Pingchang recognized Qin Manjiang as the vanished Jiang Du and feared Fang Xiu was in danger after Fang Xiu rejected his call.

• Kong told Dog that Qin Manjiang was becoming dangerous and ordered him to replace Flower as Qin Manjiang’s protector.
• Fang Xiu guided the special investigation team toward examining Chen Qiu’s movements before her murder, rather than focusing only on her social ties.
• Wang Pingchang searched for people resembling Qin Manjiang and found Jiang Du, a professor and suspected killer who had vanished twenty years earlier.
• Wang Pingchang realized that Chen Qiu had attended the university where Jiang Du had taught and called Fang Xiu, who rejected the call.

In Fu City, the Old Taoist warned that Mei Sijun and Qiao Ziruo were trapped in a ghost story created by someone, while Yan Xiao suspected the Doctor was responsible. In Moon City, Qin Manjiang confronted Fang Xiu with a story revealing the hunters’ scheme and implied that a companion’s conspicuously placed corpse had been deliberate.

• The Old Taoist woke in Qiao Ziruo’s courtyard, identified Zhong Xueran as a descendant of Zhong Xuming, and warned that Mei Sijun and Qiao Ziruo might lose control after becoming trapped in the ghost story.
• The Old Taoist said Qin Manjiang could use the Eye Realm Key to store Mei Sijun’s and Qiao Ziruo’s bodies, and Nie Yunzhen ordered the players to carry them to a car.
• Yan Xiao called the Doctor and asked whether he had caused the events in Qiao Family Village; the Doctor admitted he had experimented on whether a dead spirit pupil could create a ghost story.
• Yan Xiao reflected on the Doctor’s hidden knowledge and his agreement with Qin Manjiang to connect Fu City and Moon City.
• Qin Manjiang told Fang Xiu that Moon City’s players were hiding their identities, fusing with permanent items, and hunting one another after veterans halted new missions.
• Qin Manjiang described a companion’s corpse being placed in a crowded location and asked Fang Xiu what purpose it served; Fang Xiu panicked and shouted for him to stop.

Qin Manjiang drew out Fang Xiu’s account of Moon City’s Eye Realm changing into Hunting Mode, where fifteen players with merged Permanent Items hunted the rest. By questioning why the hunters relied on eerie powers, Qin Manjiang led Fang Xiu to realize that the mode’s rules might provide a way to survive and fight back.

• Qin Manjiang praised Doll for leading him to the scene of Chen Qiu’s death and persuaded Fang Xiu to explain Moon City’s Eye Realm.
• Fang Xiu said a strange player’s tainted blood erased the ten dark Spirit Pupil spots, after which Eye Realm announced that it was entering Hunting Mode.
• Fang Xiu explained that fifteen of the forty-nine players had Permanent Items merged into their bodies and were hunting the others, while his mutual aid group hid.
• Qin Manjiang asked Fang Xiu how he and the other players without Permanent Items could defend themselves against the hunters’ ghostlike powers.
• Fang Xiu realized that the hunters were being forced to use their eerie abilities, suggesting that Hunting Mode had rules and a possible path to survival.

Fang Xiu realized the hunters’ abilities could be turned against them, but Qin Manjiang warned that the killer might have identified the players and learned Fang Xiu had revealed Yan Yaoling’s new location. Yan Yaoling woke in her new room to find it encased in deadly ice, leaving her trapped.

• Qin Manjiang explained that hunters’ uncanny abilities could be exploited and warned Fang Xiu that his reaction to Chen Qiu’s death may have exposed him.
• Fang Xiu admitted that he had called Yan Yaoling and revealed the location where she was moving, and Qin Manjiang urged him to warn her again.
• Fang Xiu called Yan Yaoling but found her phone switched off, then drove with Qin Manjiang toward her prepared lodging.
• Yan Yaoling woke after midnight in the rental apartment, noticed the room was unnaturally cold, and heard a gasp from the ceiling.
• Yan Yaoling turned on the light and discovered that icicles covered the walls and floor, trapping her among sharp ice spikes.

Qin Manjiang wondered whether his missing sister Qin Manyi was among Moon City's pursuers, then learned that the mysterious Second Seat was Lian Yan, who had escaped from Ping'an Hospital. Fang Xiu brought him to the building where Yan Yaoling was waiting.

• Qin Manjiang reflected on how positive emotions were slowing the erosion of his reason, though they were becoming harder to summon.
• Qin Manjiang asked Fang Xiu whether he knew Qin Manyi, and Fang Xiu said he did not.
• Qin Manjiang suspected Qin Manyi might be the pursuer codenamed Evening Primrose and claimed he was helping Fang Xiu while searching for his missing sister.
• Qin Manjiang asked Fang Xiu about the player who had changed the Eye Realm, and Fang Xiu identified him as Lian Yan, the Second Seat.
• Qin Manjiang recognized Lian Yan as the person who had escaped from Ping'an Hospital, and the Doll on his shoulder cried out in excitement.
• Fang Xiu drove Qin Manjiang to the building where Yan Yaoling was upstairs.

Fang Xiu and Qin Manjiang found Yan Yaoling murdered and dismembered in her apartment, where ice covered the room. Qin Manjiang deduced that the killer could turn into ice and might still be nearby, then left Fang Xiu investigating and asked him to look into Mi Qiao from Moon City as an instance began.

• Fang Xiu rushed into Yan Yaoling's apartment and found her body cut into pieces and frozen among icicles.
• Qin Manjiang questioned Fang Xiu's panicked reaction and examined the wounds, noticing that the blood had been diluted with water.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the killer had entered the apartment and could transform into ice, possibly hiding in the unusually dry air-conditioner drain hose.
• Qin Manjiang left Fang Xiu to continue investigating and asked him to find information about Mi Qiao from Moon City.
• An instance began.

Fu City's Eye Realm began the new game, [Ghost Story: Sick Village], while Qin Manjiang struggled against its summons from Moon City. The selected players included Du Bi'an, Xu Tingfang, Yu Ruoli, Luo Chengyou, and Shen Hai, before a mysterious masked man appeared and was identified as Professor.

• Qin Manjiang told Kong that Fu City's Eye Realm was summoning him despite his stand-in, and Kong told him to hold on until Dog arrived.
• Qin Manjiang fought the summons in a Moon City restroom, unaware that water in the sink was flowing strangely.
• The Eye Realm summoned Fu City's players and announced [Ghost Story: Sick Village], with a three-day time limit.
• Du Bi'an, Xu Tingfang, Yu Ruoli, Luo Chengyou, and Shen Hai were selected for the game.
• A masked man appeared from nowhere, and the garbled name above him resolved into Professor.

Qin Manjiang received Snake’s [Hypocrisy] mask from Dog and used it before the [Eye Realm] summoned him into the Ghost Story. He entered Sick Village under the code name Professor, alongside five other chosen players, and the six were scattered after arrival.

• Dog gave Qin Manjiang Snake’s [Hypocrisy] mask and explained that it blocked emotions in Ghost Stories.
• Qin Manjiang put on the mask, and the [Eye Realm] summoned him as Professor rather than revealing his real name.
• Nie Yunzhen and the others questioned whether Jiang Du had emerged, while Qin Manjiang’s double helped conceal his identity.
• The [Eye Realm] selected Du Bi'an, Xu Tingfang, Yu Ruoli, Luo Chengyou, Player, and Professor for the Ghost Story Sick Village.
• The six players arrived in a miasma-covered place, were scattered at random, and heard the announcement that Sick Village had begun.

Xu Tingfang and Yu Ruoli were separated in the fog at the start of Sick Village and found different visitor notices for its library and medical station. Xu Tingfang tried to reach the library while obeying its rules, while Yu Ruoli stood before the medical station’s open doors and read its warnings.

• Xu Tingfang found a roadside notice saying the library was safe, listing rules, and directing visitors to find its focus of disease for a rest period.
• Xu Tingfang noticed dirt and grass on her shoes and saw a blurry figure approaching through the fog.
• Xu Tingfang ran toward the library, then stopped when she recalled the rule against making noise or horseplay and saw red lights nearby.
• Yu Ruoli found a notice at the medical station warning that patients and other dangers were inside, and saw that its main doors were ajar.

Yu Ruoli deciphered the Sick Village Medical Station’s survival rules and entered the building, while Shen Hai analyzed the Sick Village Supermarket’s rules and prepared to face its dangers. The chapter left both players beginning their separate area challenges, with Shen Hai recognizing that his rules were a trap he believed he could overcome.

• Yu Ruoli concluded that the medical station contained danger, identified its two possible paths to survival, and suspected that disinfection meant removing sheets of clustered granules.
• Yu Ruoli realized she had triggered a danger warning by staying near the entrance for about three minutes and inferred that she had to move more than a meter within that time.
• Yu Ruoli climbed the steps, opened the medical station door, and went inside.
• Shen Hai read the supermarket rules and found that [Faded Memories] could not reveal the area’s past.
• Shen Hai reasoned that the supermarket’s customers might not be human and that he would likely have a conflict with one while shopping.
• Shen Hai recognized that his supermarket rules were a trap and believed he had a way to resolve it.

Qin Manjiang and Du Bi'an found themselves in different areas of the rules-based Sick Village Ghost Story and studied the instructions that governed how they could leave. Qin Manjiang entered the nursing home and encountered an elderly resident, while Du Bi'an entered the extremely dangerous public toilet to complete its requirements.

• Qin Manjiang read the nursing home's rules, considered what they implied, and decided to avoid the other players, especially Shen Hai.
• Qin Manjiang entered the nursing home courtyard, where he saw a person sitting on a stone stool and realized it was an elderly resident.
• Du Bi'an photographed the public toilet's rules and noted its warning that it was extremely dangerous and could not be disinfected.
• Du Bi'an interpreted the rules as requiring him to hold his breath, use the toilet, and respond carefully to noises and footsteps.
• Du Bi'an took several deep breaths and rushed into the public toilet.

Luo Chengyou revealed that his Permanent Item, the Mind-Reading Mirror, had been driving him mad as it consumed his sanity, and he destroyed it before entering Nine-Bend Alley. The alley transformed around him as he stepped inside, leaving him facing white walls and ground covered in black, frogspawn-like masses.

• Luo Chengyou recalled how his Mind-Reading Mirror let him read the next thoughts of ghosts and players while permanently draining his sanity and consuming Spirit Pupil Points.
• Luo Chengyou crushed the mirror, deciding he no longer needed it or the imagined life it had represented.
• Luo Chengyou read the rules for Nine-Bend Alley: he could not touch the walls, stop walking, or look back, and he had to find the correct way through.
• Luo Chengyou entered Nine-Bend Alley, where the brick-red walls and path turned white and became covered in sticky black masses.

Luo Chengyou entered a dangerous alley and struggled to follow its rules while a creature impersonating Xu Tingfang tried to lure him back. He fled from the monster and reached three curving paths, but the rule against stopping left him unable to choose safely.

• Luo Chengyou ignored the voice claiming to be Xu Tingfang and continued into the alley, where the rules forbade touching the walls, stopping, or looking back.
• Xu Tingfang urged Luo Chengyou to walk backward, and he used his phone’s front camera to confirm that she appeared to be at the entrance.
• Luo Chengyou realized the figure could not have seen the black Pathogen inside the alley and identified it as a monster.
• Luo Chengyou ran forward as the monster pursued him, its imitation of Xu Tingfang’s voice growing distorted.
• After fleeing for about three minutes, Luo Chengyou reached three curving paths and realized he could not stop to choose among them.

Luo Chengyou chose the narrow, dark middle passage to hinder the monster chasing him, then realized the alley narrowed as he went deeper. He faced a choice between risking contact with the walls and slowing down until his phone light failed.

• Luo Chengyou rejected the familiar right passage and the bright, wide left passage, then entered the narrow middle passage covered in black granules.
• He used his phone flashlight to navigate the damp alley while avoiding its walls and the clumps of black matter.
• Luo Chengyou noticed the monster’s scraping stopped when it could not enter the narrow passage.
• He considered why Nine-Bend Alley supposedly required no disinfection and suspected its pathogens might not spread beyond it.
• Luo Chengyou realized the alley narrowed farther ahead and feared that slowing down would exhaust his phone battery, while continuing at speed could make him touch the walls.

Du Bi'an realized that something had tampered with the restroom rules, then entered the restroom to follow the remaining instructions. While he hid in a stall, a mysterious presence searched the restroom, and he noticed a command written on the door.

• Du Bi'an spotted contradictions in the restroom rules and concluded that a red warning and one of the rules had been added by something malicious.
• Du Bi'an tried to warn the other players by phone, but his message could not reach them.
• Du Bi'an rushed into the restroom, checked the stalls, and found that the second-to-last stall was occupied; a toilet flushed inside it.
• Du Bi'an hid in the opposite stall and began using the toilet, then heard hurried footsteps enter the restroom.
• Du Bi'an saw the words [Open the door and get out!] on his stall door as the presence opened the stall doors one by one.

Du Bi'an struggled to follow the restroom rules while something searched the stalls outside, then realized the thing might be himself. After he ran out of air, frog-egg-like particles fell from the ceiling and invaded his body.

• Du Bi'an chose to flush despite the danger, and the sound of the thing pushing doors stopped.
• Du Bi'an reasoned that the same person might make both light and heavy footsteps, and that the footsteps outside had become lighter.
• Du Bi'an hesitated over whether to leave because the stall door’s message conflicted with the rule not to trust messages on stall doors.
• Du Bi'an looked beneath the stall door and saw feet wearing his own white sneakers, then recognized the handwriting on the door as his own.
• Du Bi'an released his breath, and writhing black particles fell from the ceiling and burrowed into his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

Luo Chengyou pressed on through the narrowing middle path in Nine-Bend Alley, accepting the consequences of his choice as the walls closed in. Just before the walls crushed him, he touched the “frog eggs” and realized what the rule [No disinfection required] meant, but he died and the fog cleared.

• Luo Chengyou continued down the narrowing middle path, believing he had chosen a wrong route but refusing to turn back.
• As the walls closed in, Luo Chengyou resolved to follow his choice to the end, despite expecting to die.
• The walls touched and crushed Luo Chengyou, while he reached out and touched the “frog eggs.”
• Luo Chengyou realized the meaning of [No disinfection required] before the walls crushed him into mangled flesh.
• The blood vanished from the walls, and the fog cleared from the Nine-Bend Alley area.

Xu Tingfang entered the Library to escape the fog and began looking for the Library Administrator while trying to obey the rules. After discovering that the Library’s occupants seemed invisible, she realized she could draw the Administrator to her instead of identifying them herself.

• Xu Tingfang removed her muddy shoes before entering the Library and checked that the fog could not get inside.
• She searched the Library for the Administrator, prioritizing a way out over finding the Lesion.
• Xu Tingfang heard a book fall and pages turning, then found a book floating in the air with no visible reader.
• She worried that she could not tell an invisible Borrower from the Administrator without breaking the rule against communicating with Borrowers.
• Xu Tingfang recalled a similar situation and decided to make the Administrator come to her.