Chapter Summaries

Qin Manjiang took Qin Manyi out of Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital with Doctor Xi’s paperwork and set off with her for Lower River Village. During the drive, he questioned Doctor Xi about her background and challenged her over a decades-old case from Moon City.

• Qin Manjiang asked Qin Manyi about the strange-eyed people she had seen in Lower River Village, and she said she could not yet tell him what she experienced in the Beginner Level.
• Doctor Xi came downstairs with the paperwork, and Qin Manjiang delayed their departure to buy supplies while he watched for someone observing them from the hospital’s second floor.
• Qin Manjiang recognized Mr. Zhou watching from the second floor, then got into Doctor Xi’s car with Qin Manyi.
• Qin Manyi fell asleep in the back seat while Qin Manjiang asked Doctor Xi about her work and her previous city.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that Doctor Xi had forgotten the Moon City Corpse-Dismemberment Case involving Nie Yunzhen and challenged her competence.

Qin Manjiang and his companions traveled to Lower River Village, where the [Eye Realm] detected an unidentifiable Ghost Story and absolutely prohibited him from entering its range. He stayed outside while Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong went into the village to light incense for his late father.

• Qin Manyi woke from a dream of Qin Manjiang shouting as they drove toward Lower River Village.
• Qin Manjiang explained that the village had become a destination for people interested in strange happenings and Ghost Story exploration.
• Qin Manyi heard suona music that Xi Wutong could not hear, and Qin Manjiang sensed danger through the [Eye Realm].
• The [Eye Realm] failed to catalog the Ghost Story but found a Spirit Pupil Adaptor and offered to issue a mission; Qin Manjiang refused.
• The [Eye Realm] warned that its proxy was absolutely prohibited from entering the Ghost Story's range, and Qin Manjiang chose to stay outside the village.
• Qin Manyi agreed to take Xi Wutong into the village to light incense for their late father while Qin Manjiang waited by the road.

Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong entered Lower River Village while Qin Manjiang stayed outside, and Qin Manyi discovered that Li Xijiu had visited her father's grave. The news left Qin Manjiang convinced that Li Xijiu was still alive.

• Qin Manjiang refused to enter Lower River Village after checking his phone, so Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong drove into the village without him.
• Qin Manyi guided Xi Wutong through the eerily quiet, crowded village and stopped at Village Chief Wang's house.
• Village Chief Wang told Qin Manyi that Li Xijiu had visited her father's grave last month and in the previous two years.
• Qin Manyi and Xi Wutong found offerings at her father's grave, and Qin Manyi video-called Qin Manjiang to show him the traces.
• Qin Manjiang realized Li Xijiu had visited the grave last month and concluded that Li Xijiu was still alive.

Qin Manjiang learned that Li Xijiu was still alive, then left the eerie Lower River Village with Qin Manyi and returned to Fu City. Xi Wutong stayed behind to investigate the village, while Qin Manyi revealed the name of her Beginner Level: “Assimilation.”

• Qin Manjiang realized Li Xijiu’s family had not contacted him because Li Xijiu was still in touch with them, confirming that Li Xijiu was alive.
• Qin Manjiang decided not to enter Lower River Village, and Xi Wutong gave him her car keys before staying behind to investigate the village.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that her Beginner Level was called “Assimilation” and described it as changing one’s perceptions and becoming like one’s surroundings.
• Qin Manjiang drove Qin Manyi back to Fu City, where they met their tenant Mi Qiao at home.
• Qin Manyi greeted Mi Qiao and said they might be spending a long time together.

After a month of peace, the Ghost Story Game returned and recruited players for three simultaneous rounds. Qin Manjiang was spared the first two rounds, but the third, a Challenge Mode called Candy Game, recruited him as Abyss.

• Qin Manjiang woke on November 6 and reflected on the quiet month he had spent with Qin Manyi, Xiaobai, and his friends.
• The Ghost Story Game returned, and Wedding Dress recruited Home Flower, Zishu, Abu, Ranpo-san, and Poetic Sentiment for Multiplayer Mode.
• Don't Speak recruited Loves Sweets, Ba Jie, Hard Drive, Ziru, and Nie Yunzhen for a second Multiplayer Mode.
• Qin Manjiang recognized Qiao Ziruo's code name, Ziru, and considered helping the Class Monitor, while noting that he had not been selected for either round.
• The game activated Challenge Mode and recruited Abyss, Player, White Sandalwood, Dao Eye Clouds and Mist, Swimming Fish, and Yezi for Candy Game.

Qin Manjiang was selected for the Candy Game again, where players could either unravel the Ghost Story or win its rule-based game. Before the game began, he asked Qin Manyi to help Qiao Ziruo if she could do so safely, then received a call from Shen Hai arranging a meeting.

• Qin Manjiang noticed Shen Hai had also been selected repeatedly, and read the Candy Game’s opening lines with the other players.
• The game instructions said players had to arrive at Blue Bay Villas by midnight the next day and could clear the level by unraveling the Ghost Story or winning the game.
• Qin Manjiang realized the two routes to survival could make the players suspicious of one another.
• Qin Manyi offered to join Qin Manjiang, but he told her to help Qiao Ziruo only if she could do so safely and warned that she might not be able to enter or use her item.
• Shen Hai called Qin Manjiang and asked to meet beforehand at Catface Café.

Yu Ruoli joined Shen Hai and the other players at the Catface Café to discuss how they would survive the upcoming Ghost Story at Blue Bay Villas. Everyone agreed to cooperate and seek the source of the haunting, but Shen Hai’s response to Qin Manjiang left open the possibility that he would kill rivals to win.

• Yu Ruoli arrived at the café and met Shen Hai, Yang Liuye, Qin Manjiang, Tan Murong, and Xu Youqing before their midnight encounter with ghosts.
• Shen Hai asked the group to choose between solving the Ghost Story at its source and competing to win the Candy Game, and everyone chose cooperation.
• Shen Hai proposed killing anyone who harmed the group’s interests, while Qin Manjiang suggested they stay together at Blue Bay Villas.
• Xu Youqing shared what he had learned about the abandoned villas by the Ming River, and the group discussed the opening lines before parting.
• Qin Manjiang asked whether Shen Hai would have killed the others if someone had chosen competition, and Shen Hai admitted that killing rivals could secure victory.

Tan Murong went to the bar after her boss refused to give her three days off and spoke to the Boss's wife about her lonely, exhausting life and the Ghost Story Game. She left feeling that she wanted to survive at least long enough to return for the rest of her wine.

• Tan Murong's boss refused her request for three days off and warned her not to return if she missed work the day after tomorrow.
• Tan Murong went to the bar and drank red wine while telling the Boss's wife that she felt her life had no meaning beyond work and aimless phone scrolling.
• The Boss's wife listened as Tan Murong drunkenly said she expected to die in the Ghost Story Game, then let her sleep.
• The Boss's wife told Tan Murong to stay alive and welcomed her back whenever she felt unhappy.
• Tan Murong left the bar and walked into the fog, thinking that she had to return and finish the half bottle of wine.

On a rainy day, Shen Hai, Qin Manjiang, and the others crossed the Ming River to reach the Blue Bay Villas for the Candy Game. As the boat arrived, they considered the possibility that the game could last indefinitely and Yu Ruoli showed Qin Manjiang a portrait she had drawn of him.

• Xu Youqing, Shen Hai, and the others discussed whether to scout the Blue Bay Villas before the Candy Game began.
• Qin Manjiang warned that the game had no stated time limit, so they might need supplies if they failed to clear it quickly.
• Yu Ruoli announced that the boat had arrived, and the boatman cautioned them to avoid homeless people living in the unfinished development.
• Yu Ruoli thanked Qin Manjiang for his past help and showed him a portrait she had drawn, which he said no longer looked like him.
• The boatman brought the group to the Blue Bay Villas.

The six players searched the gloomy Blue Bay Villa District and found a fully furnished, spotless home at No. 666, which they suspected was prepared for the Ghost Story Game. They settled inside as Qin Manjiang struggled with his unusually intense fear, and Yu Ruoli startled him by quietly announcing her presence.

• Xu Youqing explained that the still water and wind made the villa district feel dead and oppressive.
• Qin Manjiang stayed close to Shen Hai because he was overwhelmed by fear, while Shen Hai suggested that the group find a place to settle.
• The six searched the district and found the only completed villa, Blue Bay Villas-No. 666.
• Shen Hai kicked open the locked gate, and the group entered the spotless, furnished home.
• Yang Liuye switched on the chandelier, and Qin Manjiang sat down on the sofa before Yu Ruoli startled him by saying, "I'm here."

At midnight, the six participants began the Candy Game and learned that they had to find unique red objects to trade for candy. Shen Hai discovered that his own blood could be exchanged for candy, and eating it protected him from a monstrous woman approaching the villa as the others rushed to search.

• As midnight arrived, a ghostly girl appeared on the ceiling and announced a six-round Candy Game with one fewer candy each round.
• The girl set the first round’s task: find something red in the villa, bring back a unique item, and eat the candy immediately.
• Shen Hai cut his palm and discovered that his blood turned into a candy when it dripped into one of the five trays; he ate it and gained a red glow.
• A blood-soaked woman appeared on the courtyard wall and charged toward the living room, ignoring Shen Hai because of his glow.
• Shen Hai told the others to find red items for candy, then relaxed on the sofa as they scattered through the villa to search.

Tan Murong searched the villa for something red while Xu Youqing hid from the female ghost and realized his red underwear could satisfy the game. After Xu turned it into candy, Qin Manjiang attacked Shen Hai, stripped away his protective red glow, and ate the candy it became.

• Tan Murong inferred that the villa had reverted to the way it was when the family in the Opening Lines lived there and went upstairs to search for something red.
• Xu Youqing hid behind the living-room curtains while Shen Hai deliberately opened a nearby curtain to test whether the female ghost would react to him.
• Xu Youqing discovered Qin Manjiang hiding beside him, then placed his red underwear on a tray and watched it transform into candy.
• Qin Manjiang slammed Shen Hai’s glowing head onto a tray, causing the red light around him to turn into candy, which Qin Manjiang ate.
• Qin Manjiang taunted Shen Hai for using others to test the game, and Shen Hai promised that he would pay for it.

Qin Manjiang and Xu Youqing used the candy’s red glow to investigate during their temporary period of safety, while Yu Ruoli risked returning to the front courtyard for a red flower. As Yu Ruoli picked it, the Floral-Dress Woman appeared above her, and a message declared the entire team wiped out.

• Qin Manjiang confronted Shen Hai for using them as bait, and Shen Hai left the living room.
• Qin Manjiang explained to Xu Youqing that the red glow made them temporarily invulnerable and that Shen Hai had shown no interest in resolving the Ghost Story.
• Qin Manjiang suggested using his reddened face as an item to trade for candy, and Xu Youqing was astonished.
• Yu Ruoli circled back to the front courtyard and searched the weeds for a red flower to exchange for candy.
• Yu Ruoli found and picked a little red flower, then saw the Floral-Dress Woman hanging upside down beneath the third-floor eaves.
• A message appeared on Yu Ruoli’s phone stating that the entire team had been wiped out.

Qin Manjiang and Yu Ruoli used red candies to evade the Vengeful Ghost, but Yang Liuye died when her red dress failed to turn into candy because someone had already supplied an item of the same type. After Tan Murong obtained the final candy, the first round ended and the players were given a new challenge: turn into something inside the villa and hide.

• Qin Manjiang smashed a third-floor window to distract the Vengeful Ghost and give Yu Ruoli time to escape, then admitted his legs had frozen from fear.
• Yu Ruoli used a red tray to turn her flower into candy and ate it, then threw her Sketchbook at the Vengeful Ghost to give Yang Liuye time to place a red dress in the last tray.
• The red dress burst into flames because another item of the same type had already been used, and the Vengeful Ghost caught and killed Yang Liuye.
• Tan Murong placed a Pressure Cooker's Safety Valve in the tray, ate the candy it produced, and joined the other glowing players beneath the chandelier.
• The chandelier went dark, Shen Hai was teleported from the Back Courtyard into the Living Room, and the little girl announced round two: four candies, with the players required to turn into something in the villa and hide.
• A blood-red countdown appeared at sixty, and Qin Manjiang, Shen Hai, Xu Youqing, Yu Ruoli, and Tan Murong ran in different directions.

During the second Candy Game round, the players had to hide as objects inside the villa while a new Vengeful Ghost appeared. Qin Manjiang discovered they could only become the red objects they had found in the first round, and the chapter left him searching for a way to hide as red light while Shen Hai concealed himself as blood.

• Xu Youqing identified the ghost pursuing them as Miss Yezi, and the players saw a second Vengeful Ghost in a bloodred dress on the villa wall.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the players could transform only into the red objects they had found in the first round and shouted the discovery to the others.
• Qin Manjiang turned into a human-shaped mass of red light and realized that ordinary lights could not conceal him.
• Qin Manjiang spotted the new ghost near the front courtyard, where Yu Ruoli would have hidden among the weeds after finding a flower.
• After hearing Qin Manjiang's warning, Shen Hai turned into blood and blended into rainwater on the back-courtyard lawn.

The players hid as the search began, and Tan Murong realized the little-girl host might be a participant who could be eliminated if the ghosts found her. Her discovery was interrupted when Yang Liuye stared directly at her while she was disguised as a Pressure Cooker Safety Valve.

• Yu Ruoli struggled to find a plausible hiding place, while Tan Murong turned into a Safety Valve and Xu Youqing hid as red underwear.
• The countdown ended, trapping Qin Manjiang, Shen Hai, Yu Ruoli, Tan Murong, and Xu Youqing in place as the search began.
• Yang Liuye appeared as a Vengeful Ghost and searched the Kitchen, where Tan Murong was hiding.
• Tan Murong reasoned that the little-girl host was also a player and that finding her could end the Game.
• Yang Liuye bent over the Pressure Cooker and stared at Tan Murong in her Safety Valve form.

Shen Hai was nearly killed when [Older Sister] tracked his blood through the rain, while Tan Murong was found in the Kitchen as a red Safety Valve. Yu Ruoli used her Spirit Medium Sketchbook to request a pause, briefly freeing the players to move.

• [Older Sister] followed the smell of Shen Hai’s blood to the Back Courtyard and began sucking up the rainwater mixed with it.
• Tan Murong realized the Vengeful Ghost knew which objects the players had become and found her at the Pressure Cooker.
• A scream from the Kitchen distracted [Older Sister], allowing Shen Hai to realize he could move again.
• Yu Ruoli saw a painting in her Spirit Medium Sketchbook that suggested players could request a pause and formed the thought to do so.
• A little girl’s voice announced that the players had one chance to pause the game.

During the pause in the hide-and-seek game, the players rushed to find new hiding places while Qin Manjiang warned Yu Ruoli that the rules might make being caught safe for everyone except the first player. He told Yu Ruoli to let the ghost catch her.

• Shen Hai hid in Yang Liuye's bloodstain in the Living Room to mask his own bloody smell.
• Xu Youqing decided to stay disguised as Red Underpants in the Wardrobe because moving could expose him.
• Tan Murong hid beneath the Drain, determined to survive and reveal that the terrifying girl was also a player.
• Yu Ruoli moved from the Exterior Wall to the Weed Patch in the Front Courtyard after pausing the game.
• Qin Manjiang told Yu Ruoli that the candies suggested only the first player caught might die, then instructed her to let the ghost catch her.

Qin Manjiang used the rain to watch the game from a wide vantage and asked Yu Ruoli to identify which ghost was truly deadly. As [Older Sister] searched the Living Room where Shen Hai hid, he realized the Candy Game’s winner became its next ghostly host, leaving the players trapped in a repeating game.

• Qin Manjiang told Yu Ruoli he had scattered himself through the rain and could see the players and ghosts.
• Qin Manjiang described how [Older Sister] vanished during the pause while Yang Liuye's Corpse was injured, and asked Yu Ruoli to work out which ghost killed players.
• When the game resumed, Yang Liuye's Corpse crushed a Pressure Cooker, while [Older Sister] reappeared and crawled toward the Back Courtyard before turning to stare into the Living Room.
• Shen Hai stayed hidden in Yang Liuye's blood and questioned why [Older Sister] seemed to find him so quickly.
• Shen Hai recalled the Opening Lines and concluded that the Horror Girl was [I], the previous Candy Game's winner, who had become the host of the next game.

Yang investigated the newly emerged multiplayer ghost story [Wedding Dress] after learning that players had to survive six hours in Huai'an Residential Complex. The entire team was wiped out within half an hour despite using powerful survival items, and Home Flower’s final message called the story unsolvable.

• Yang learned that Home Flower and four other players had begun suffering bride-related hallucinations before [Wedding Dress] started.
• Home Flower told Yang that the game took place in the abandoned Huai'an Residential Complex and required the players to survive for six hours.
• Yang gathered information about Huai'an Residential Complex and prepared to support Home Flower’s team from outside the game.
• Just after midnight on November 8, Yang received notice that all five players in [Wedding Dress] had been wiped out.
• Yang learned that Home Flower’s final message had been: “Unsolvable!!!!!”