Chapter Summaries

Yang Yi and Su Na set out for Miskatonic University to investigate its library, despite the risk that their actions could trigger the third Seaquake. They navigated the building’s dangerous, shifting floors and received a newly calculated route as they continued toward the university.

• Sun Jin warned Yang Yi and Su Na that disturbing Miskatonic University’s library could worsen the building’s instability and trigger the third Seaquake, but they decided to go.
• Yang Yi collected weapons and equipment for himself and Su Na before learning that Sun Jin had to stay behind to stabilize the hibernation pods.
• Yang Yi left Xiao Luo with food and departed with Su Na, who carried a wristband showing the building’s structure, hazards, and safe routes.
• Yang Yi and Su Na entered an elevator to floor 4437.17 and learned how the building’s infinitely subdivided floors and unpredictable stairs worked.
• Yang Yi carried Su Na to another elevator before the floor’s electrical Bug could catch them, and her wristband calculated their next route to floor 5712.09923311932.

Yang Yi and Su Na followed the wristband’s route through the elevator network to floor 0, where they emerged in the Medical Technology Building’s basement. There they encountered a monstrous mass of fused students, and Yang Yi used a new weapon to tear it apart.

• Yang Yi and Su Na raced through the elevator route while evading hazards, then encountered the intangible Murderer, who relentlessly struck Yang Yi with a dead Long-Legged Sardine.
• Yang Yi and Su Na reached floor 0 and found themselves on B3 of the Medical Technology Building, near the Morgue.
• Yang Yi sensed something approaching as the Murderer continued hitting him, and Su Na heard a huge creature crawling toward them amid the voices of students.
• A giant insect made from fused student bodies charged at Yang Yi and Su Na.
• Yang Yi fired the ⊕ projectile at the creature, then shot the ⊖ projectile into the corridor wall, unleashing a force that crushed the creature against it.

Yang Yi and Su Na discovered that the university’s despairing scholars sustained the light of truth and the facility’s reason, making them dangerous to kill. They escaped the Medical Technology Building and hurried toward the library through a campus overrun by prisoners of truth.

• Yang Yi identified the flesh worm as a Despairing Prisoner of Truth and realized that killing such scholars could hasten the facility’s collapse.
• Yang Yi’s communication with Sun Jin failed, and Su Na urged them to head for the library while avoiding the out-of-control scholars.
• A muscular senior attacked Yang Yi and Su Na, but Su Na froze her with her ability, and Yang Yi carried Su Na out of the building.
• Yang Yi and Su Na passed through the campus, where scholars trapped in despair repeatedly tested reason and spread distressing claims about the facility.
• Yang Yi used Three Eyes to survey the campus, and he and Su Na avoided fighting the scholars as they continued toward the library.

Yang Yi and Su Na reached the Truth Library, where a black-robed figure resembling Sun Jin attacked them. The figure revealed a monstrous head made of formulas and theorems, then used a divine force to make Yang Yi vanish, leaving Su Na terrified.

• Yang Yi and Su Na approached the malformed Truth Library, finding dead prisoners of Truth and woodborers scattered around it.
• Su Na warned Yang Yi about high-energy proximity mines, and Yang Yi flew toward the library.
• A black-robed figure shot Yang Yi and triggered explosions, then blocked Yang Yi's counterattack with a long saber.
• Yang Yi recognized the figure's resemblance to Sun Jin and demanded an explanation as its layered laughter came from beneath the hood.
• The figure revealed a severed neck topped by a head of shifting formulas, faces, and the character for Reason, while its Light of Civilization calmed the scholars.
• The figure invoked universal gravitation and made Yang Yi vanish into a crater, leaving Su Na trembling in midair.

Yang Yi and Su Na fought the bizarre man, whose knowledge let him alter the world’s rules and attack minds. Yang Yi overpowered him for a time while Su Na was sent to the Library, but the man gathered immense power for a counterattack.

• The bizarre man nullified Su Na’s energy attacks by invoking the conservation of energy, and Su Na realized his knowledge could rewrite physical rules and affect her mind.
• The bizarre man nearly subdued Su Na, but Yang Yi burst from underground, seized him, and revealed his Abyssal One form.
• Yang Yi overwhelmed the bizarre man in close combat, while the man unleashed purple flames from the Chitinous Shell fused into his body and matched Yang Yi’s strength.
• Yang Yi told Su Na to find information in the Library while he restrained the man, avoiding killing him because the Lighthouse’s light had to remain lit.
• The bizarre man invoked a new law to amplify his power, and Su Na warned Yang Yi just as the man swung his glowing fist.

Yang Yi and Su Na discovered that correcting the freak’s false statements weakened his power and disrupted his control over reality. Su Na repeatedly refuted his claims while Yang Yi attacked, leaving the freak badly injured and his regeneration slowed.

• Yang Yi blocked the freak’s devastating strike, had his shield destroyed and his chest torn open, then recovered through Refuse Death+.
• The freak regenerated his arm and powered up again as Yang Yi prepared to fight, but Su Na rushed forward and corrected his claim about kinetic energy.
• The freak became confused and weakened after Su Na’s correction, allowing Yang Yi to attack him with Big Mouth and sever both of his legs and one arm.
• The freak tried to regenerate, but Su Na refuted his claim about cellular repair, slowing his recovery as he questioned whether she was right.

Su Na confused the Counterfeit with scientific laws, allowing Yang Yi to weaken him until Old Man Sun arrived and sealed his head in a container. The group entered the chaotic Truth Library to seek a way to repair the building, but the remaining time to save human civilization was under twelve hours.

• Su Na used her ice soul eye and arguments about conservation of energy to freeze the Counterfeit's body and deepen his confusion.
• Old Man Sun appeared, sliced the Counterfeit's head into fragments with his saber, and sealed them in a container.
• Yang Yi demanded to know why Sun Jin had waited to act, and Sun Jin explained that he had seen only one chance to capture the monster.
• Sun Jin led Yang Yi and Su Na into the shifting Truth Library, where Su Na began searching for manuscripts and records.
• Sun Jin said he had assigned the remaining hibernation pods to an Abyss Nautilus, and his wristband showed that they had eleven hours and fifty-four minutes left.

Yang Yi restored Sun Jin’s body, and Sun Jin revealed that his brain had become part of the Library’s foundation. After learning that repairing the collapsing building required someone to join with Truth and serve as its Foundation, Su Na agreed to prepare for the repair.

• Yang Yi restored Sun Jin’s body and shaped him a human head after teasing him about the missing one.
• Sun Jin revealed his brain in a Black Jar, connected by cables to the Library, and explained how a Bug had defeated him and stolen his body.
• Su Na read the records and learned that the Library was sustained by Scholars and a Fool who had joined with Truth.
• Su Na Na offered to become part of the Foundation, but Su Na refused, judging that she alone could not sustain the building.
• Su Na finished reading, said she knew how to repair the Library, and proposed returning to make preparations.

Yang Yi, Su Na, and Sun Jin assessed the devastated university and began preparing to repair the Light of Truth while buying time by removing Bugs. Su Na concealed that the emergency plan required a choice Yang Yi would refuse, leaving Sun Jin to tell him the truth later.

• Yang Yi left the Library with Su Na and Sun Jin and saw that the impact had devastated the university and killed most of the prisoners of Truth.
• Su Na explained that the repair would take at least forty-eight hours and showed how removing Bugs and unstable Stasis Pods could extend the facility’s dynamic time limit.
• Su Na planned to repair the Light of Truth in the Library, while Yang Yi moved supplies underground and then left to remove Bugs from the facility.
• After Yang Yi departed with the Murderer, Sun Jin asked why Su Na was hiding the plan from him, and she said he would never agree if he knew the truth.
• Su Na asked Sun Jin to tell Yang Yi when the time came, then entered the ruins to prepare the emergency repair plan for the Light of Truth.

Yang Yi began fixing high-risk “Bugs” and encountered the Open Black Box, which disintegrated nearby matter. He used the Murderer to push it into the Abyss, then asked the facility system for a wristband and a list of Bugs so he could choose his next target.

• Yang Yi entered the elevator, lost contact with Su Na and Sun Jin, and arranged with Xiao Luo to deliver more disposable Bug containers.
• Yang Yi arrived on a floor where the Open Black Box was drawing matter into itself, and found that his container was disintegrating before it could capture the Bug.
• Yang Yi realized the Murderer was unaffected by the Black Box and persuaded it with a Long-Legged Sardine to push the box into the Abyss.
• The facility system confirmed the Open Black Box was gone and recalculated the remaining time as 8 hours, 24 minutes, and 17 seconds.
• Yang Yi gave the Murderer another Long-Legged Sardine and asked the system for a wristband and a list of high-risk Bugs.

Yang Yi collected wristbands from Floor 171.171 after destroying the Redeemer's Noose, then developed a method for sorting and selectively resolving Bugs. With Sun Jin's help, he increased their efficiency until the facility's estimated remaining time surpassed twenty hours.

• Yang Yi entered Floor 171.171, burned away the Redeemer's Noose, and collected more than fifty wristbands from the corpses.
• Yang Yi classified Bugs as entity-type or phenomenon-type and began prioritizing nearby, easier targets.
• Yang Yi retreated from the Ecological Guardian after it transformed him into a sheep, then returned with Devil Flowers and used them to destroy the robot and its grassland.
• Yang Yi increasingly used captured Bugs against other Bugs, while Xiao Luo provided more containers.
• Sun Jin joined Yang Yi, and their improved efficiency raised the estimated remaining time above twenty hours.

Su Na completed her preparations to contact the Abyss while Yang Yi fixed the Game Room Bug, giving them years to prepare. Yang Yi returned to Miskatonic University, where the campus had been restored and Su Na was missing, and confronted Sun Jin.

• Su Na removed her brain and connected it to her headless body with cables and a Thread to prepare for contact with the Abyss.
• Yang Yi used the Maw of Gluttony to step on all the Game Room’s squares at once, fixing the Bug and discovering that fifty-five days and seventeen hours remained.
• Yang Yi realized Su Na had finished her repairs and contacted Sun Jin to report the news and ask how to return to the real world.
• Sun Jin hesitated, then asked Yang Yi to come to the university to talk.
• Yang Yi arrived on Miskatonic University’s restored campus, found no sign of Su Na, and confronted Sun Jin.

Yang Yi confronted Sun Jin about the university’s true purpose and learned that Su Na had become its foundation, keeping the Light of Truth active. Determined to bring her back, Yang Yi headed for the Truth Library and ended the chapter considering a more humane plan A after Sun Jin suggested grafting other people onto him as a backup plan.

• Yang Yi pinned Sun Jin against a wall and demanded to know why he had concealed the truth about the university.
• Sun Jin explained that Su Na had merged with the university to sustain the Light of Truth, while sealed Scholars helped power it.
• Yang Yi asked Sun Jin about alternative plans, then decided to take Su Na away and find another way to fight the Abyss.
• Sun Jin warned that removing Su Na would collapse the university and let the Abyss consume the world, but Yang Yi continued toward the Truth Library.
• Yang Yi admitted that grafting people onto himself could serve as backup plan B and said he had a more humane plan A.

Yang Yi devoured the Truth Library’s records and structure to understand the university and find a way to save Su Na. He learned that the available plans either abandoned civilization or pursued transcendence, but neither would let Su Na escape, so he kept searching for another solution.

• Yang Yi entered the stabilized Truth Library and began eating its laboratories and contents to absorb their knowledge.
• Yang Yi grew into a giant mass of flesh, while Sun Jin watched and the Maw of Gluttony struggled against the forced feeding.
• Yang Yi asked Sun Jin to keep fighting the Bugs because the crisis had only been postponed and their remaining time was uncertain.
• Yang Yi learned that Truth could not be killed and that the other plans involved retreating from Reason or pursuing transcendence.
• Yang Yi rejected the Players’ possible victory because it would leave Su Na trapped, then used a Cleaver to keep extracting and consuming knowledge.

Yang Yi devoured the Truth Library and transformed into a gigantic, gluttonous creature, alarming Sun Jin, who rushed to stop him. Yang Yi explained that he had discovered a way to sustain the Light of Truth, save the world more time, and take Su Na away.

• Yang Yi lost control while consuming the Truth Library, and Sun Jin abandoned his attempt to contain a Bug to rush back to floor 0.
• Sun Jin found Yang Yi transformed into a colossal creature, eating the Library while students and Scholars were driven mad by its fragrance.
• Sun Jin confronted Yang Yi, but Yang Yi spoke calmly and claimed he had a solution after learning how the world and the Light of Truth worked.
• Yang Yi explained that the device needed fuel and stable Truth Fragments rather than Su Na, and that he intended to preserve the world while taking her away.
• Yang Yi produced an antique Flintlock and said he believed its true purpose was to relight their civilization.

Yang Yi replaced the Truth Library by consuming its Truth Fragments, then used his accumulated knowledge to charge the True Infinite Flintlock with a final shot intended to relight the Lighthouse. The shot fired into the Abyss, but its effect was not yet shown.

• Yang Yi persuaded Sun Jin to help drive away the Scholars feeding on the Truth Fragments.
• Yang Yi consumed the remaining Truth Fragments, became the Lighthouse’s light source, and left less than an hour before the device burned out.
• As the Collapse Clock fell and the world stabilized, Yang Yi freed Su Na and restored her brain to her body.
• Yang Yi explained that he would use the True Infinite Flintlock to fire his knowledge back into the facility, and Su Na and Sun Jin agreed to let him try.
• Yang Yi poured nearly all his knowledge into the cracking Flintlock, which fired a projectile and sent light into the Abyss.

Yang Yi illuminated the Abyss and returned to Miskatonic University with his knowledge and speech wiped away, but Su Na restored him by feeding him textbooks. The group learned that the living Truth had been provoked and the world would end in fifteen to twenty-three days.

• The lighthouse-shaped building released a burst of light that destroyed nearby aberrations and revealed a figure resembling Yang Yi before the light withdrew.
• Su Na and Sun Jin found the expanded Truth Library and a statue honoring Yang Yi, who lay at its entrance unable to speak or move after losing most of his knowledge.
• Su Na had Sun Jin carry Yang Yi into the library, where she forced him to consume progressively advanced textbooks until he could speak and function again.
• Yang Yi said they should prepare to leave the university, but Su Na warned that their actions had provoked the living Truth.
• Su Na estimated that the world would reach its end in fifteen to twenty-three days, with the time-flow multiplier giving them roughly 200 days of activity time in the real world.

Yang Yi and Su Na prepared to leave aboard the Great Nautilus while Sun Jin chose to remain at the university. A file revealed that the Truth Society had summoned the Salt Pillar through a massive experiment, and Yang Yi and Su Na saw an image of it.

• Sun Jin offered Yang Yi and Su Na the Great Nautilus so they could leave, but refused to accompany them and chose to stay with his students.
• Sun Jin warned Yang Yi and Su Na that the Salt Spike was connected to the Salt Island and that an earlier retrieval mission had cost the lives of four powerful soldiers.
• Su Na searched the university records after Yang Yi could not recall what he knew about the Truth Society's experiment.
• Su Na and Yang Yi read a report describing nine attempts to summon the Salt Pillar, culminating in a virtual world experiment involving ten million people.
• Yang Yi exclaimed when he and Su Na saw the report's image of the enormous Salt Pillar rising above a white salt desert.

After discovering that the Truth Society had summoned and contacted the Salt Pillar, Yang Yi and Su Na prepared to leave the Truth Library and retrieved the Great Nautilus. With Xiao Luo aboard, the submarine entered the Abyss to begin their return journey.

• Su Na concluded from the experimental records that the Truth Society had summoned the Salt Pillar and established contact with it, increasing the risks on Salt Island.
• Yang Yi and Su Na collected books from the Truth Library and bid farewell to Sun Jin, who refused to leave with them.
• Yang Yi and Su Na reached the 100,000th floor, where they met Xiao Luo beside the Great Nautilus.
• Yang Yi activated the Great Nautilus, and Su Na received First Mate permissions to operate the ship.
• Yang Yi ordered Xiao Luo to take them home, and the Great Nautilus set sail into the Abyss.

The players combined Steam Island, Green Island, Corpse Island, and Burning Island into Ultimate Victory Island to cross the Sea of Abundance safely and attack Salt Island. After worsening anomalies nearly destroyed the island and crushed the players’ morale, conditions suddenly stabilized, and the repaired island continued toward Salt Island.

• After Green Island, Corpse Island, and Burning Island transformed dangerously in the Sea of Abundance, Galahad helped eliminate a monster on Corpse Island, and the players decided not to send the islands through separately.
• The players merged Steam Island with Green Island, Corpse Island, and Burning Island, creating Ultimate Victory Island after weeks of construction and extensive modifications.
• Ultimate Victory Island entered the Sea of Abundance with protective measures, but rising Collapse Clock readings brought frequent anomalies that eventually crippled its propulsion and divided the island into crisis-ridden zones.
• As players died, disintegrated, or took their own lives, the efforts of Mythic-level fighters kept hope alive until the world briefly brightened and the anomalies stabilized.
• The island’s factories resumed full operation, its facilities were repaired, and Ultimate Victory Island continued sailing toward Salt Island.