Chapter Summaries

Qin Manjiang left the town and followed a mysterious figure into Butterfly Island’s fog, suspecting the ghost story unfolded there rather than in town. As he investigated a mound among the flowers, a monster with a human head and a pig’s body attacked him, leaving him puzzled about its identity.

• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the town was likely a ghost’s dream and that the fog held the real path to survival.
• Qin Manjiang followed a blurry figure deeper into the fog, where he found a sea of flowers and lost sight of the way back.
• Qin Manjiang spotted a raised mound among the flowers and crouched to investigate it.
• A monster with a human head and a pig’s body lunged at Qin Manjiang, but he rolled aside and narrowly dodged it.
• Qin Manjiang wondered whether the monster was the ghost that had eaten Chen Yu and questioned why such a creature appeared on Butterfly Island.

Wang Million drank all the pork rib soup to spare Liang Yue, then vomited live cockroaches as they escaped the lodge. Liang Yue noticed a pork inspection stamp on the boss's wife and realized the town's residents all bore similar marks, leaving the pair surrounded by a new mystery.

• Wang Million drank the entire basin of pork rib soup, causing the boss's wife to disappear and the kitchen door to open.
• Wang Million vomited soup and live cockroaches while Liang Yue stayed to help him despite her terror.
• The boss's wife reappeared at the foot of the stairs, but let Wang Million and Liang Yue leave the lodge.
• Liang Yue noticed a pork inspection stamp on the boss's wife's waist and carried the unconscious Wang Million to the town's main street.
• Liang Yue told Wang Million that the boss's wife was not a ghost made from a human, and the townspeople fell silent and stared at her.
• Liang Yue saw blurry blue-green marks on every townspeople's exposed skin.

Liang Yue and Wang Million discovered that Butterfly Island’s residents had transformed into pig-human monsters and were devoured, while Swimming Fish fled into the spreading fog. Qin Manjiang found a newspaper report about a girl killed by pigs at a local farm, but the discovery left him questioning whose dream the Ghost Story was.

• The town’s residents mutated into pig-human monsters, and Liang Yue carried the weakened Wang Million as they tried to escape.
• The Pig People caught and ate Liang Yue and Wang Million, while Swimming Fish witnessed their deaths and ran into the fog.
• The fog entered the town as its streets and houses warped into pigpens, and the Pig People charged after Swimming Fish.
• Qin Manjiang heard a scream he thought might be Swimming Fish’s but stayed behind to dig into a mound of soil.
• Qin Manjiang found a newspaper report about a little girl who had fallen into a pigpen and been eaten, but the report deepened his confusion about whose dream he was in.

Qin Manjiang deduced that the town and fog were part of a dream whose owner was waking, then exposed Swimming Fish as Attorney Chen Yu, the Ghost’s Eyes. Chen Yu revealed her role in helping the ghost kill the others, but a tall figure appeared with a scalpel at her neck.

• Swimming Fish fled through the fog and told Qin Manjiang that the townspeople had become Pig People who had eaten Liang Yue and Wang Million.
• Qin Manjiang used the newspaper and the town’s changes to reason that the ghost story was a dream and that its owner was waking.
• Qin Manjiang noticed that Swimming Fish had not been dampened by the fog and concluded she was Attorney Chen Yu, chosen as the ghost’s perspective.
• Chen Yu transformed her face and admitted that she was the Ghost’s Eyes, tasked with helping the ghost kill everyone.
• A tall figure emerged beside Chen Yu and pressed a scalpel to her neck.

Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao realized that the events on the island might be unfolding in a ghost’s dream, with Chen Yu serving as the ghost’s viewpoint. They planned to draw her into the mist, where Qin Manjiang would search for a way to counter the ghost.

• Qin Manjiang found Yan Xiao examining Chen Yu’s mangled corpse, and Yan Xiao revealed that Chen Yu was alive and had faked her death.
• Yan Xiao explained that he and Chen Yu had worked together and that his scalpel could be used on people who had not been dead long; he had discovered that the corpse lacked a heart.
• Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao compared their theories and concluded that the town’s missing details and strange behavior suggested they were in a dream.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the ghost could not see its own face in a dream and might have chosen Chen Yu as its viewpoint; they concluded she had fled because staying near the players was dangerous to her.
• Qin Manjiang decided to enter the mist alone the next day, and Yan Xiao gave him a severed finger that could help locate him through the mist.

Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao hid from the pursuing monsters with Chen Yu, but Swimming Fish spotted them and changed course to protect them. Qin Manjiang ran to join her, used Yan Xiao’s scalpel to put himself into a thirty-minute deathlike state, and stabbed Swimming Fish as the monsters closed in.

• Yan Xiao confronted Chen Yu about her claims and hid with her and Qin Manjiang as the monsters approached.
• Swimming Fish fled from the monsters and changed direction after seeing Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao hiding in the hollow.
• Qin Manjiang asked Yan Xiao for his scalpel, entrusted Chen Yu and the Path to Survival to him, and ran toward Swimming Fish.
• Qin Manjiang stabbed himself in the heart with Yan Xiao’s scalpel, which would keep him from dying for thirty minutes while leaving him able to feel pain.
• Swimming Fish revealed that her name was Yu Ruoli, and Qin Manjiang stabbed her in the heart as the monsters surged toward them.

Yan Xiao confronted Chen Yu, who revealed that she had become the ghost’s eyes and wanted them to remain forever in its dream. After rejecting her plan to kill others for that life, Yan Xiao turned against her.

• As Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish faced being devoured, Chen Yu urged Yan Xiao to stop and questioned whether they could clear the Ghost Story by waking the ghost.
• Chen Yu recalled how Yan Xiao had saved her during their first Multiplayer Mode Ghost Story and told her that her life belonged to him.
• Chen Yu explained that the boatman had taken them to the island in a dream, where she had become the ghost’s eyes and could live forever by obeying its taboos.
• Yan Xiao reminded Chen Yu that the Opening Lines said the dream was like a bubble, shattered at a touch, and rejected her plan to kill others to preserve their lives there.
• Yan Xiao said he loathed anything that tried to take life away and declared that he now loathed Chen Yu.

Yan Xiao realized Chen Yu had become the Ghost’s Eyes after seeing her reflection, and used a phone camera to force the ghost to reveal itself. As the mist and flowers turned hostile, he carried the trapped monster toward Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish, while Qin Manjiang and Yu Ruoli endured their injuries under the Cursed Scalpel’s effect.

• Yan Xiao questioned Chen Yu and deduced that seeing one’s reflection had caused her to become the Ghost’s Eyes.
• Yan Xiao aimed his phone’s front-facing camera at Chen Yu, triggering her transformation into a monster and making the blood-red flowers sprout teeth.
• Yan Xiao crushed the attacking flowers and carried the immobilized monster away to find Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish.
• Qin Manjiang discovered that being torn apart caused him little pain and shielded Yu Ruoli as the monsters attacked them.
• The half-human, half-pig monsters fled when the mist and flowers became hostile, and Qin Manjiang concluded that Yan Xiao had succeeded.

Qin Manjiang, Yan Xiao, Yu Ruoli, and Chen Yu escaped the immediate danger of the Vengeful Ghost, only to face a gigantic pig-like monster in the fog. Qin Manjiang realized the Ghost Story had never taken place on Butterfly Island, but at White Dew Bay, and that the entire journey had been a trap.

• Yan Xiao explained how seeing one's own appearance exposed the ghost, while Qin Manjiang grew uneasy despite the Vengeful Ghost being captured.
• The ghost reverted to Chen Yu as a colossal pig-like monster emerged from the fog, and Yan Xiao warned the others to run.
• Yan Xiao used the Cursed Scalpel to revive Chen Yu, but the monster seized Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu and swallowed them.
• As Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao fled, the monster's debris knocked Qin Manjiang down, and a newspaper about White Dew Bay flew from his pocket.
• Qin Manjiang recalled the boatman's words and realized they had never reached Butterfly Island; the Ghost Story had been a trap at White Dew Bay.

Qin Manjiang realized the group had mistaken White Dew Bay for Butterfly Island and that reaching the real island was their way to survive. Chen Yu stopped the Vengeful Ghost by reclaiming it as its stand-in, clearing the fog and revealing Butterfly Island, before Qin Manjiang used the Single Pure Bell to teleport himself, Yan Xiao, and Yu Ruoli away.

• Qin Manjiang realized they were still at White Dew Bay, but the Terrifying Giant Ghost crushed him before he could escape.
• Qin Manjiang awoke inside the Vengeful Ghost with Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu, and learned they could not get out from inside it.
• Chen Yu told Qin Manjiang she no longer wanted to live and gave him a Single Pure Bell that could teleport three people within the game's boundaries.
• Chen Yu saw her face on her phone, becoming the Vengeful Ghost's stand-in and causing the ghost to collapse and return to her body.
• The fog lifted to reveal the real Butterfly Island nearby, but Chen Yu was nowhere to be seen.
• Qin Manjiang shook the Single Pure Bell and teleported himself, Yan Xiao, and Yu Ruoli away as the fog rose again and the game was declared cleared.

The players prepared for their second night caring for the obese woman in Twilight Apartment, while the cleared Butterfly Island game stirred uncertainty. March entered the suite first, and an unnervingly aged voice called her inside.

• The Butterfly Island Ghost Story was marked cleared, and Qin Manjiang left White Dew Bay Dock with Doctor and the others.
• Yezi and the other players reviewed the rules and considered whether the obese woman's curse could make them age.
• The players searched Twilight Apartment and found it abandoned, with no sign of anything abnormal.
• The six players reversed their caregiving order, putting March first and Shen Hai last.
• March took her Congealed Jade Gourd and entered the suite after hearing the woman urgently call her inside.

March faced the bloated woman’s demand to trim her black nails, but found human skins in the bedside table and was forced to change the skins on the woman’s hands instead. The woman stripped the skin from March’s arms and dragged her into the mosquito net while the others waited outside.

• March entered the bedroom and the woman demanded that she trim her long black fingernails.
• March realized she had no nail clippers and asked the woman where to find them.
• March opened the bedside table and found it filled with neatly folded human skins.
• The woman tore the skin from both her hands and ordered March to change them.
• The woman stripped the skin from March’s arms, grabbed her by the neck, and dragged her into the mosquito net.

After March died inside the bedroom, Deep Valley Dusk entered to take his turn, while the others tried to work out what had killed her. He followed Shen Hai’s advice and agreed to fulfill the ghost’s requests, but the chapter left him carrying the ghost as its grotesque shadow rose behind him.

• At 1:01, Deep Valley Dusk entered the apartment after Shen Hai told him to do everything he could to fulfill the ghost’s wishes.
• Deep Valley Dusk saw March’s severed head and a snow-white arm reach from behind the mosquito net to pick it up.
• Xiaotian, Yezi, and Soup Dumpling speculated that March had died after failing to give the ghost the body part it wanted.
• Shen Hai told Soup Dumpling to give the ghost whatever it requested, even if he had to gouge out his own eyes.
• The ghost asked Deep Valley Dusk to carry it to the bathroom, and he agreed as its huge body rose behind him.

Qin Manjiang returned home after a Ghost Story and reflected on his strange body while Mi Qiao made him noodles. At Twilight Apartment, Deep Valley Dusk carried a bloated woman to the bathroom, heard another woman pleading from inside her, and fled after seeing the trapped woman in a mirror.

• Qin Manjiang came home late and found Mi Qiao asleep on the sofa because her bedroom door had locked shut.
• Qin Manjiang recalled feeling free when the monster tore his body apart and wondered what he was.
• Qin Manjiang told Mi Qiao not to clean his bedroom after realizing she had entered it while he was away.
• Deep Valley Dusk carried a bloated woman toward the bathroom and heard a younger woman inside her pleading for help.
• Deep Valley Dusk saw March and an unfamiliar, still-living woman emerge from the bloated body in a mirror, then ran out of the apartment.

Deep Valley Dusk emerged from the Apartment unharmed, but rapidly aged after describing what he had seen inside. Shen Hai confirmed his death and warned the others that their own deaths might be worse.

• Deep Valley Dusk told Shen Hai and the others that the entity had ordered him to stand by a window and carry it to the toilet.
• Deep Valley Dusk suddenly began aging, losing his hair as his body withered before the group.
• Deep Valley Dusk described seeing March and another woman’s head on the entity, and said the woman had called for help from inside its belly.
• Deep Valley Dusk asked Shen Hai how to stop aging, then died despite Shen Hai’s comforting words.
• Shen Hai checked his pocket watch, confirmed Deep Valley Dusk’s death, and warned the survivors that their deaths might be more painful.

After Deep Valley Dusk died of old age, Shen Hai reasoned that a curse came from ignoring a young woman trapped inside the Vengeful Ghost, while disobeying the ghost itself meant being eaten. Soup Dumpling entered the apartment as the third player, determined to heed the ghost and listen for the woman’s voice.

• Soup Dumpling asked whether players should obey the Vengeful Ghost or the game's one-hour requirement after Deep Valley Dusk died upon leaving early.
• Yezi suggested Deep Valley Dusk had suffered a curse, and Shen Hai explained that March had been eaten for defying the ghost while Deep Valley Dusk's aging death pointed to a separate curse.
• Soup Dumpling concluded that Deep Valley Dusk had ignored a living woman inside the Vengeful Ghost, and Shen Hai agreed that the woman might be the source of the aging curse.
• Soup Dumpling resolved to obey the ghost, respond to the young woman's voice, and stay calm.
• When Shen Hai announced the time, a voice inside the apartment ordered them to come in, and Soup Dumpling entered as the third player.

Soup Dumpling entered the bathroom to carry out the Vengeful Ghost and discovered that it was wearing the skin of his companion March. After helping it put on March’s skin, he was ordered to carry it out.

• Soup Dumpling opened the restroom door after the ghost fell silent, but found no one inside.
• The ghost told Soup Dumpling it was in the bathtub, where he discovered human skins covering the floor.
• Soup Dumpling saw the Vengeful Ghost holding March’s skin and realized that March had been killed and skinned.
• The Vengeful Ghost ordered Soup Dumpling to help it put on March’s skin, and he obeyed despite his fear.
• After dressing in March’s skin, the Vengeful Ghost told Soup Dumpling to carry it out.

Soup Dumpling carried the Vengeful Ghost through the Apartment and resisted its attempt to frighten him into breaking the Game Rules. When Anran appeared and begged him to pull her out of the heap of rotten flesh, he decided to take the risk.

• Soup Dumpling saw the Vengeful Ghost's monstrous shadow in the washroom light but reasoned that it was trying to scare him into dropping it.
• Soup Dumpling carried the ghost into the bedroom, where the shadow returned to normal, confirming his suspicion that it had been a trap.
• The woman inside the ghost appeared and told Soup Dumpling her name was Anran and that she was a nineteen-year-old student at Fucheng University.
• Anran begged Soup Dumpling to pull her out of the rotten flesh, explaining that she could not escape without someone pulling from outside.
• Soup Dumpling recalled Shen Hai's theory that the flesh might be a shell and agreed to try pulling Anran out.

Soup Dumpling risked confronting the Vengeful Ghost to help Anran escape its body, but he could only pull her partway out before the ghost woke. After he reported what he learned, Shen Hai asked to enter the apartment before Xiaotian and try a reckless idea.

• Soup Dumpling turned around and found Anran trapped inside the Vengeful Ghost wearing March’s skin.
• Anran told Soup Dumpling that an old person’s skin had seized her after she arrived at Twilight Apartment for a volunteer assignment.
• Soup Dumpling and Anran tried to pull her free, but the flesh’s suction kept her from escaping before the ghost woke.
• Soup Dumpling lowered the mosquito net as Anran instructed, then emerged from the apartment unharmed and told the others what had happened.
• When the ghost called Xiaotian inside, Shen Hai stopped him and asked to go in first so he could try a reckless idea.

Soup Dumpling died of rapid aging despite completing the tasks, and Shen Hai sent Xiaotian into the Apartment while hiding his true intentions. Xiaotian entered believing Anran was the living core of the ghost story, then heard her plead for help from inside the Vengeful Ghost.

• Soup Dumpling rapidly aged and died while Shen Hai refused to use his ordinary Pocket Watch to help him.
• Shen Hai urged Xiaotian to enter the Apartment, and Xiaotian agreed to follow their original plan.
• After Xiaotian entered, Shen Hai's anxious expression vanished, revealing his indifference and mockery.
• Xiaotian reasoned that Anran was still human and the core of the ghost story, and believed killing her could end it.
• Xiaotian massaged the Vengeful Ghost's leg for nearly twenty minutes before hearing Anran faintly ask to be saved.