Chapter Summaries

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.

Shen Hai and Nie Yunzhen pursued a ghost through identical passages hidden behind colored doors, trying to follow its footsteps before it could leave them lost. As Shen Hai raced ahead with excitement, Nie Yunzhen reflected on her inadequacy, the burden placed on her, and the other self tied to her Shared-Fate Lock.

• Shen Hai rushed through a vermilion door after footsteps sounded, and Nie Yunzhen followed him into a passage lined with more doors.
• Shen Hai realized that repeatedly opening doors without catching the ghost could trap them in the overlapping passages, so he told Nie Yunzhen to listen for its location.
• Nie Yunzhen reflected on her lack of ability, the responsibility others had entrusted to her, and how her other self and the Shared-Fate Lock had shaped that trust.
• Nie Yunzhen used the Shared-Fate Lock on Qin Manjiang and listened for the ghost, identifying the orange-red door when its footsteps sounded.
• Shen Hai opened the orange-red door before Nie Yunzhen could react, then continued through a blackish-red door as she struggled to keep up.
• Shen Hai eagerly pursued the ghost through the passages while Nie Yunzhen feared she would have been lost without him.

Liu Jingqing hid in the ball pit as the ghost approached, while Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai separately investigated the ghost’s location and the game’s objective. Qin Manjiang struck a bell at the fountain pool, turning on every light in the Snake Mouth District.

• Liu Jingqing stayed motionless beneath the ball-pit balls as the ghost stood nearby, then remained hidden even after its footsteps seemed to retreat.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai encountered each other in the Underground Parking Lot and confirmed through their reactions that neither was the ghost.
• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that the ghost had started at the steps by the fountain pool, then headed toward the Shopping Mall to look for someone.
• Qin Manjiang went to the fountain pool and found a bell and a red-cloth-wrapped drumstick hanging from a frame.
• Qin Manjiang struck the bell, and every light in the Snake Mouth District came on.

Liu Jingqing escaped the Ball Pit when Nie Yunzhen drew the ghosts away, then found the Hanging Bell and rang it, saving Nie from pursuit. The renewed light also exposed Chen Zhiyuan to the headless corpse as Shen Hai watched helplessly from the elevator shaft.

• Liu Jingqing waited for the ghost to leave the ceiling, then spotted Nie Yunzhen making noise to lure it away.
• Nie Yunzhen chose the Shopping Mall to attract the multiplying ghosts and give the others a chance to ring the bell.
• Liu Jingqing raced across the Square, found the Hanging Bell in the Fountain Pool, and struck it with the mallet.
• The Snake Mouth District lit up, one ghost headed for the bell, and Nie Yunzhen escaped around a corner.
• Chen Zhiyuan shut the elevator doors against the headless corpse, which struck them as Shen Hai watched from the bottom of the shaft.

Liu Jingqing realized that the Nie Yunzhen who found her was a Vengeful Ghost in disguise, and it swallowed her before taking her appearance. Ten minutes earlier, the real Nie Yunzhen had lured ghosts away and hidden on the Shopping Mall rooftop, but a ghost found her and her Second Personality ordered her to jump.

• Liu Jingqing told Nie Yunzhen that she suspected the ghosts used sight to find players, then noticed Nie Yunzhen's point of light was missing from the map.
• The disguised Vengeful Ghost revealed itself, swallowed Liu Jingqing, and took her appearance.
• Nie Yunzhen had drawn at least two ghosts away while another player rang the bell, then escaped to the Shopping Mall rooftop during the lights-out interval.
• A ghost appeared on the rooftop, and Nie Yunzhen heard her Second Personality command her to jump as her body began moving toward the terrace.

Shen Hai recognized the Liu Jingqing figure at the Underground Parking Lot as a ghost and urged Chen Zhiyuan to flee, while Qin Manjiang found Liu Jingqing’s hair clip and rang the bell again as a ghost approached. As he ran toward the Shopping Mall, Qin Manjiang realized the bell was real and suspected the Ghost Story’s supposed Path to Survival was a deception built around it.

• Shen Hai recognized the figure resembling Liu Jingqing as a ghost and ordered Chen Zhiyuan to run.
• Qin Manjiang searched the grass near the Street Garden and found Liu Jingqing’s hair clip, fearing she had died.
• Qin Manjiang struck the hanging bell when a ghostly figure appeared, plunging the lights into darkness.
• Qin Manjiang ran toward the Shopping Mall and reasoned that the ghost’s false rules had been designed to exploit the real bell.
• Qin Manjiang concluded that the red-text Path to Survival was likely a dead end rather than the Game’s true solution.

Qin Manjiang realized the bell started a one-on-one game of hide-and-seek with the original ghost, while each ringing also spawned a dangerous duplicate. He returned to the lit Fountain Pool game area to wait for the ghost, but the one that arrived was a towering, leaping vengeful ghost that announced the game was beginning.

• Qin Manjiang deduced that ringing the hanging bell started a hide-and-seek game with the original ghost and that the supposed rule to ring it three times was a trap that spawned duplicates.
• Qin Manjiang concluded that the bell ringer would be safe from the original ghost if they stayed in the lit Fountain Pool area, but fleeing outside it could expose them to the duplicates.
• Qin Manjiang ran back to the Fountain Pool area and waited beneath a streetlight for the original ghost to enter the game area.
• A vengeful ghost leaped over a streetlight and entered the lit area instead of the pale-white ghost Qin Manjiang expected.
• The pale-white vengeful ghost appeared before Qin Manjiang and said, “Right here, let's begin... hide-and-seek...”

Qin Manjiang searched the lamplit area for the hidden Vengeful Ghost as the Countdown dwindled, while Shen Hai and Chen Zhiyuan decided to enter the Game area to try to save him. With only one minute left, Qin Manjiang had found nothing unusual and still did not know where the ghost was hiding.

• Qin Manjiang discovered that the Vengeful Ghost, Shen Hai, and Chen Zhiyuan had vanished from the illuminated area, and a ten-minute Countdown began.
• Qin Manjiang searched the Fountain Pool, steps, streetlamps, and paving tiles for something unusual but found nothing.
• Shen Hai asked Chen Zhiyuan whether he would risk dying to save someone who had failed the Game, and Chen Zhiyuan urged him to try.
• Shen Hai carried Chen Zhiyuan into the darkness to catch ghosts and save Qin Manjiang.
• With three minutes left, Qin Manjiang searched the Fountain Pool underwater, but found nothing unusual as the Countdown reached one minute.

Shen Hai realized Chen Zhiyuan had deliberately left him beside the Hanging Bell, then rang it despite understanding that the lights would endanger Chen Zhiyuan. Meanwhile, Chen Zhiyuan revealed a conversation with his future self before letting four vengeful ghosts consume him.

• Shen Hai recognized that Chen Zhiyuan had secretly returned the [Continuation Pen] while lucid and suspected that he had planned to die.
• Shen Hai hesitated to ring the Hanging Bell because doing so would light the Snake Mouth District and prevent rescuing captured players, but struck it as a ghost lunged at him.
• Chen Zhiyuan's mature self explained to his childish past self that death would let them return better and that they needed to escape the watching eyes and break the cycle.
• Chen Zhiyuan walked into a dark corner and was swallowed by four vengeful ghosts, while reassuring his past self that they would win.
• Shen Hai played rock-paper-scissors with the vengeful ghost, lost, and worried that he had nowhere to hide as it began counting down.

Nie Yunzhen gave Qin Manjiang a notebook containing Yi Lianhai’s account of Zuo Xian discovering a terrifying cave beyond Moon City. The final entry revealed Yi Lianhai’s name, leaving Qin Manjiang shaken by the notebook’s contents.

• Shen Hai asked Yan Xiao when his leg would heal and asked for Qin Manjiang, but Yan Xiao left without responding to the request.
• Nie Yunzhen asked Qin Manjiang about the world beyond Fu City and handed him an orange-yellow notebook of notes left by someone she called the beginning of everything.
• Qin Manjiang read Yi Lianhai’s account of Zuo Xian taking him beyond Moon City to a cave whose darkness seemed boundless and filled with buried horrors.
• Qin Manjiang flipped to the notebook’s final entry and found the name Yi Lianhai.

Qin Manjiang confronted Yan Xiao with the truth about Xu Yi’s body and Yi Lianhai’s motives, then reflected on the mysteries surrounding Nie Yunzhen. He left Yan Xiao to decide what to do and found Shen Hai asking to accompany him, but their conversation ended with Qin Manjiang demanding money for a replacement phone.

• Qin Manjiang told Yan Xiao that Xu Yi had become Yi Yu and that Yi Lianhai had repurposed Xu Yi’s remains to create a newborn soul, not resurrect Yan Xiao’s father.
• Qin Manjiang warned Yan Xiao that Yi Lianhai wanted information about Fu City’s [Eye Realm] and the Spirit Pupils, and that his plans threatened everyone there.
• Qin Manjiang considered the strange details surrounding Nie Yunzhen, including her cracked [Shared-Fate Lock], her claim that another Nie Yunzhen had died, and the secrets in Yi Lianhai’s notebook.
• Qin Manjiang left Yan Xiao on the bench to make his own choice and went into the clinic.
• Shen Hai asked Qin Manjiang to take him along and requested a replacement phone; Qin Manjiang agreed, then asked him for money.