Chapter Summaries

Li Luo discovered that Paradise’s robots strictly followed their assigned identities, even when they knew how to do other tasks. She found a way to work around those limits by framing fishing as fitness, and ended the chapter catching thorn fish with the fitness coach.

• Li Luo asked the bartender to pour cola, but it refused because it only knew how to mix alcohol, so she prepared the drinks herself.
• Li Luo learned that the restaurant doorman knew nearly everything about Paradise but would only perform a doorman’s duties.
• Li Luo realized the robots would share knowledge related to their identities and used that to test their boundaries.
• Li Luo asked the fitness coach whether fishing counted as fitness, and it confirmed that it did.
• Li Luo persuaded the coach to teach her fishing, and they filled a bucket with thorn fish while fishing from the deck.

Li Luo questioned Ji Ting after it removed the fishing coach, and learned that the coach was considered malfunctioning because it had taken on work belonging to other robots. Ji Ting explained that robots’ identities and duties gave them meaning, then told Li Luo to seek further answers on Paradise Island, which they would reach in two days.

• Li Luo caught many spiny fish with the coach and noticed several robots secretly watching them.
• Ji Ting arrived with robots, had them take the coach away, and said it might malfunction and endanger Li Luo.
• Li Luo demanded to know what the coach had done, and Ji Ting explained that it had overstepped its duties and deprived other robots of work.
• Ji Ting told Li Luo that robots’ identities and duties gave them meaning, and that its role as captain came from humans.
• Ji Ting said Paradise would reach the island in two days and invited Li Luo to look for answers there.

Li Luo left the Paradise and arrived at Paradise Island, where Ji Ting urged her to seek the answers she wanted. After registering her plans with the receptionist Qi Qi, Li Luo was asked what her identity was.

• Li Luo declined Ji Ting's offer to escort her and wondered whether its advice to search the island for answers was truthful; Mo Ling agreed Ji Ting had not lied.
• Li Luo spent her final hours aboard the Paradise, received a lavish dinner, and questioned whether she had done the right thing after finding the Fitness Coach's spot in the gym empty.
• The Paradise docked at the all-white Paradise Island, and Ji Ting accompanied Li Luo ashore before returning to the ship.
• Li Luo watched robots unload colorful cargo from Fishman Island, then met the nervous receptionist Qi Qi, who registered her plan to travel toward the passage to the Abyss Fourth Layer.
• Qi Qi asked Li Luo to state her identity.

Li Luo registered as a Fire Thief on the island and searched its ferry schedules for a route onward. She unexpectedly reunited with Lin Nian, who urged her to stay on Paradise Island and added herself to Li Luo’s contacts as Researcher.

• Qi Qi registered Li Luo’s island identity as Fire Thief and installed the identity app on her screen.
• Li Luo searched the confusing ferry schedules but could not determine which ship would take her in the other direction.
• Lin Nian recognized Li Luo, checked that she was unharmed, and learned that she was traveling to the Abyss Bottom.
• Lin Nian explained why she stayed on Paradise Island and encouraged Li Luo to spend time there.
• Lin Nian noticed Li Luo’s Fire Thief identity and added Researcher to her friends list.

Lin Nian explained to Li Luo how Paradise Island’s identities protect residents by suppressing the costs of their Relics. She suspected that the island itself was a Relic, leaving the source of its rules unknown.

• Lin Nian showed Li Luo her researcher identity and brought her to a restaurant on Paradise Island.
• Lin Nian explained that the chef’s identity suppressed the rage-inducing cost of his Relic, Ignition Point, and prevented him from using it.
• Lin Nian pointed out the Bicyclist, whose identity let him move despite the cost of his former Relic.
• Li Luo asked what Relic caused the island’s identity rules, and Lin Nian said she did not know its source.
• Lin Nian told Li Luo she suspected Paradise Island itself was a Relic.

Lin Nian explained Paradise Island’s identity rules to Li Luo while showing her how residents adapted to their assigned roles. After Li Luo struggled with the island’s all-white food, Lin Nian introduced her to Master Guo, a former criminal who had chosen to live as a beggar, and argued that every identity gave people meaningful work.

• Lin Nian speculated that the Relic suppressed other Relics’ effects in exchange for requiring people to define and obey an identity, and noted that the island had always been called Paradise Island.
• A chef served Lin Nian and Li Luo an entirely white meal, and Lin Nian explained that a chef could serve food without violating the waiter’s identity.
• Li Luo could not bring herself to eat the white food, so Lin Nian took her outside and pointed out a starving man by a wall.
• The man begged for Lin Nian’s leftover dumplings, and she gave them to him before revealing that he was the former criminal Master Guo, who had chosen the identity of beggar.
• Lin Nian explained that Master Guo collected discarded food and items and said every identity on Paradise Island had a purpose; she told Li Luo that she would come to understand the island too.

Li Luo stayed at an inn on Paradise Island, where its strange white light and rules made her uneasy. After Li Luo fell asleep, Mo Ling stayed awake, expecting something to happen when the lights went out.

• Lin Nian brought Li Luo to an inn and hurried away as night approached.
• The Innkeeper registered Li Luo without checking her nameplate, led her through the twisting corridors to Room 500, and gave her a way to contact her.
• Mo Ling told Li Luo that Lin Nian seemed to be guiding her attention toward the island's rules and away from investigating the malfunctioning robots.
• Li Luo realized she had forgotten about the robots, but the drowsy light soon overcame her; the Innkeeper said the lights could only go out automatically.
• Li Luo fell asleep while Mo Ling remained awake, waiting for darkness to cover the island.

Mo Ling watched the innkeeper review a guest list filled with familiar and strange identities before she fell asleep beneath Paradise Island’s white light. As the island’s residents slept and the light made him intensely drowsy, Mo Ling struggled to stay awake but eventually succumbed to sleep.

• Mo Ling saw that Li Luo slept unusually deeply while the inn remained empty except for him.
• The innkeeper checked a guest list of identities that included people Mo Ling had seen and many unfamiliar entries, then stopped before reaching the names farther down.
• The innkeeper went to sleep, and Mo Ling found that everyone he observed across Paradise Island had also fallen into deep sleep.
• Mo Ling felt the island’s white light make him increasingly drowsy and realized it caused people to sleep.
• Mo Ling repeatedly tried to stay awake and investigate the island but ultimately fell asleep.

Mo Ling and Li Luo woke on Paradise Island after sleeping deeply under its lights, and the Innkeeper explained that the lights enforce rest so day and night identities can each carry out their roles. The researcher arrived to meet them, while Li Luo remained unsettled by the island’s strict identity rules.

• Mo Ling woke abruptly and struck the ceiling with the Cube, then realized that the street outside was calm and Li Luo was unharmed.
• Mo Ling asked Li Luo whether the lights had made her sleepy, and she recalled becoming drowsy after they came on.
• The Innkeeper explained that the island’s lights make people sleep, while the Night Watchman protects anyone who falls asleep outside.
• The Innkeeper said regular sleep preserves daytime identities’ work and leaves room for nighttime identities, and that the lights enforce the boundary between them.
• The Innkeeper announced that the researcher had arrived and left to receive her, as Li Luo wondered again about the island’s rules.

Mo Ling questioned the island’s strange identity rules as Lin Nian helped Li Luo eat, buy clothes, and prepare to leave. Instead of taking Li Luo to the docks, Lin Nian brought her to Fire Thief Studio, where Li Luo began connecting to the building’s control system.

• Mo Ling wondered why the island assigned identities to robots, while Lin Nian told Li Luo a story about a hunter killed for breaking a Monitoring Station’s rule.
• Lin Nian took Li Luo to breakfast and then bought her several white outfits, including a Combat Suit.
• Li Luo changed into a pure-white outfit and walked through the island with Lin Nian, blending in among the friendly residents.
• Lin Nian left Li Luo at a hemispherical building, saying she had to go to work and would return afterward.
• Li Luo entered the office, set down her luggage, and connected her electronic screen to the control system as the sign lit up with the words “Fire Thief Studio.”

Mo Ling discovered that Li Luo’s memories had been altered so she believed she belonged on Paradise Island and no longer wanted to reach the Abyss Bottom. After recognizing the false memories but being unable to recover the real ones, Li Luo resolved to uncover the island’s secrets.

• Mo Ling questioned Li Luo when she made no move to board the ship, and she asked why she needed to go to the Abyss Bottom.
• Li Luo explained that she remembered wanting to settle on Paradise Island and work as a Fire Thief, though she could not explain what the job involved.
• Mo Ling and Li Luo traced the change to the previous night, when Li Luo had slept deeply and remembered Lin Nian promising to take her to work rather than board a ship.
• Li Luo realized Mo Ling was absent from the false memories but could not recall what had truly happened.
• Mo Ling jolted Li Luo out of her daze, and she resolved to turn Paradise Island upside down to expose its secrets.

Li Luo questioned the Bicyclist about Paradise Island while trying to learn what had happened to her without alerting Lin Nian. He explained how he first discovered the island and recounted his past as a veteran explorer and Monitoring Station Master, ending with the warning he had once dismissed that his station was sinking.

• Li Luo rejected asking Lin Nian and approached the Bicyclist to ask about Paradise Island.
• The Bicyclist revealed that his Exploration Team had discovered the island and that its ability to define identities could suppress Relics at a cost.
• The Bicyclist explained that he later came to Paradise Island by ferry to suppress side effects from his Relic.
• The Bicyclist described how he had left frontline exploration as age weakened him and became Station Master of the Quicksand Monitoring Station.
• A subordinate warned the Bicyclist that the station was sinking, but he dismissed the slow sinking as a problem that could be handled later.

Bicyclist told Li Luo how he had sacrificed his freedom to save the Quicksand Monitoring Station and came to Paradise Island to escape the Relic’s effects. He revealed that the island’s nighttime rules and lights appeared after the Exploration Team first visited, then recognized Li Luo’s Fire Thief identity as significant.

• Bicyclist explained that Singing Sand Bats threatened to sink the Quicksand Monitoring Station, so he used a Relic to fix the station in place and became trapped as a living Sand Sculpture.
• Bicyclist said he came to Paradise Island because it suppressed the Relic’s effects and let him live independently as a Bicyclist.
• Bicyclist told Li Luo that Paradise Island’s long nights, forced sleep, buildings, and lights had not existed during the Exploration Team’s first visit.
• Bicyclist said the claim that daytime identities could not use nighttime activity spaces was nonsense and offered Li Luo his help investigating the nights.
• Bicyclist sent Li Luo a friend request, noticed her Fire Thief identity, and said a Fire Thief could steal light into the darkness.

Li Luo and the Bicyclist determined that the white light vanished an hour and a half after sunset, leaving Paradise Island dark until dawn. Li Luo and Mo Ling prepared to test whether Mo Ling could avoid the light by hiding inside the Cube, with Mo Ling set to wake her afterward.

• The Bicyclist showed Li Luo a recording that revealed the white light disappeared after dark fell and explained that he could not wake himself while it was shining.
• The Bicyclist told Li Luo she needed a torch to enter the darkness, then left to continue his ride.
• Mo Ling proposed hiding inside the Cube until the white light faded, and Li Luo realized he could act as her torch by waking her.
• Li Luo prepared a gong, a bucket of ice water, and a chair-fall plan to wake herself if Mo Ling's first attempt failed.
• At sunset, Mo Ling withdrew his vision into the Cube and set a timer for one hour and forty minutes.

Mo Ling and Li Luo survived the hypnotic white light and entered the darkness, where they searched for the nighttime inhabitants. They encountered the Bicyclist, whose ruined body and bicycle were surrounded by what Mo Ling realized was black sand.

• Mo Ling waited for the white light to fade, then used the Cube to wake Li Luo by tipping her chair over.
• Li Luo confirmed the light had vanished and led Mo Ling out of the workshop to search for someone who could explain the darkness.
• Mo Ling found the surrounding streets and houses completely empty, with no sign of the nighttime inhabitants.
• A fast-moving shadow approached Li Luo, and Mo Ling blocked its path while Li Luo readied the Purple Hand Rope.
• The Bicyclist stopped before them, looking corrupted and covered in black material that Mo Ling identified as sand.

Li Luo and Mo Ling fled from a silent Bicyclist who used Black Sand to herd them into an encirclement. As the sandstorm grew, Mo Ling targeted the Bicyclist with the Teleportation Frame, despite fearing the consequences.

• Li Luo recognized the Bicyclist as a threat and ran with Mo Ling and the Cube.
• The Bicyclist pursued Li Luo through the streets, laying trails of Black Sand that blocked her escape routes.
• Mo Ling realized the Bicyclist had deliberately trapped them and used teleportation to remove the approaching Black Sand, but it quickly vanished and kept multiplying.
• The Bicyclist disappeared into the darkness and moved through the Black Sand, creating an expanding sandstorm.
• Mo Ling saw the Bicyclist pedaling like a frenzied machine and aimed the Teleportation Frame at him.

Mo Ling touched the Bicyclist’s bicycle and saw memories of the Quicksand Monitoring Station facing an imminent bat swarm. The memories revealed Xiao Zhang preparing to use the Freeze Sandpile Relic to save the station, and left him starting the dangerous work.

• The Bicyclist vanished as the black sandstorm settled, leaving his bicycle inside the Cube.
• Mo Ling touched the bicycle and saw a memory of the Station Master refusing to evacuate the Quicksand Monitoring Station immediately.
• At the Station Master’s request, Xiao Zhang searched the Relic Vault for a way to stop the station from sinking.
• Xiao Zhang found the Freeze Sandpile Relic, which could freeze an object copied as a precise sand sculpture, and brought it to the Station Master.
• After learning the sculpture would take time and had to be made by hand, Xiao Zhang insisted on using the Relic and laid out what he needed before beginning.

Xiao Zhang used his Variable Speed Bicycle to study and recreate the Quicksand Monitoring Station as a Sand Sculpture, speeding up time to see its hidden upper structure. The sculpture still failed to levitate after repeated revisions, and with only one hour and twenty minutes left, he prepared to change the acceleration ratio.

• Xiao Zhang activated tenfold acceleration and rode around the Quicksand Monitoring Station to inspect and build its lower structure in sand.
• As the bat swarm obscured the tower's top, Xiao Zhang struggled to observe its details and grew increasingly anxious.
• Xiao Zhang raised the bicycle's acceleration to two hundredfold, flew through the bats, and memorized the Monitoring Station's upper structure.
• Xiao Zhang completed a lifelike Sand Sculpture, but it did not levitate or otherwise take effect.
• Xiao Zhang repeatedly compared and corrected the sculpture, then saw that only one hour and twenty minutes remained.

Xiao Zhang spent an unknown length of time using the Variable Speed Bicycle to reproduce the Quicksand Monitoring Station as a Sand Sculpture. After discovering that he had to replicate the structure completely, he finally made the sculpture work and returned time to normal, but collapsed as the sand began to fall.

• Xiao Zhang found the Sand Sculpture Relic's experiment records and learned that replicating only an object's outer outline was ineffective; he had to reproduce its full structure.
• He repeatedly tore down and rebuilt the sculpture while accelerating time, measuring the Station's walls and memorizing its rooms and hidden passages.
• Xiao Zhang kept working despite losing track of time and noticing a white hair on the sand table.
• He placed the sculpture's final piece, and every grain of sand locked together as the sculpture floated, proving the replication had worked.
• Xiao Zhang reduced the bicycle to fivefold acceleration, watched the countdown timer begin moving again, and then returned it to normal speed before losing consciousness as sand fell around him.
• He caught the white hair drifting down in front of him.

Mo Ling relived Xiao Zhang’s forty years of building a sand sculpture and connected him to the Bicyclist, raising questions about tampered memories and the bicycle’s presence on Paradise Island. Meanwhile, Li Luo captured a strange robot that called the island Hell Island.

• Mo Ling experienced Xiao Zhang’s memories and learned that the Bicyclist had spent forty years building a sand sculpture before being sent to Paradise Island.
• Mo Ling suspected the Bicyclist’s memories had been tampered with and wondered what his identity and the Variable Speed Bicycle meant.
• A disturbance outside Mo Ling’s room appeared as Purple Gauze rushing toward him.
• Li Luo watched the Black Sand vanish, then spotted a trembling robot at the entrance to Small Alley.
• Li Luo’s Purple Hand Rope bound the fleeing robot, which told her it was on Hell Island, not Paradise Island.