Recaps

Agent Robin questioned Lin Rui about his connection to Pastor Essen Borg and the charity project, while Lin Rui explained how he had found the pastor. Their conversation was interrupted by Doyle and his gang, who confronted Lin Rui at the food truck, leaving Robin face to face with the drug dealer he had come to discuss.

• Agent Robin watched Lin Rui’s busy food truck before approaching in plain clothes and introducing himself as a narcotics agent.
• Robin told Lin Rui that a city council member had complained about Doyle, a drug dealer and police informant, harassing a charitable project.
• Robin questioned how Lin Rui had found Pastor Essen Borg, and Lin Rui said he had remembered the pastor from charity coverage on television.
• Doyle arrived with several men, demanded protection money, and insulted Lin Rui while his gang surrounded the food truck.
• Lin Rui recognized Doyle and told Robin that the man he had been discussing had come to them.

Lin Rui helped Agent Robin arrest Doyle and two of his accomplices, completing his mission to punish the henchmen. He later visited Sophia in her dream and received the skill 'Steel Lungs and Viscera.'

• Doyle tracked down Lin Rui's food truck with several underlings, but Agent Robin revealed his DEA badge and ordered Doyle to surrender.
• Robin and the other officers arrested Doyle and two of his accomplices, and they found contraband in Doyle's pockets.
• Robin warned Lin Rui that he remained suspicious of him, while Lin Rui received notice that his mission was complete.
• Lin Rui continued serving food at the Gershwin Theatre, where he learned the assistant manager was facing a costly medical evacuation.
• Lin Rui met Sophia in her dream and asked her for combat training, so she taught him 'Steel Lungs and Viscera.'

Sophia recorded her dream about teaching Lin Rui a skill, while Lin Rui continued working with the Jones family and helped Toby improve his studies and lose weight. After the partnership split its profits, the Jones sisters each claimed the reward they had promised Lin Rui, leaving him exhausted and Linda furious.

• Sophia woke at midnight, recorded her dream of teaching Lin Rui “Steel Lungs and Viscera,” and wondered whether they shared dreams before choosing to keep her distance.
• Lin Rui spent the following week working at the Gershwin Theatre and talking with Sophia in his dreams, then collected $5,400 in profits from the food cart.
• Linda stepped back from the cart, Samantha agreed to take her place, and the Jones family planned follow-up treatment for Mr. Jones.
• Toby reported earning Bs and losing ten pounds, and Lin Rui praised his progress under the effects of Sophia’s Suggestion Technique.
• Cynthia took Lin Rui upstairs to fulfill her promised reward, then Samantha and Andrea each took him to the bathroom in turn while Linda silently cursed him.

Lin Rui sought a quiet place to build his strength after being exhausted by the Jones sisters’ triple reward, and Pastor Borg gave him access to an abandoned neighborhood gym. Lin Rui barely trained before Toby’s progress and the food truck’s steady profits earned him the promise of an enhanced reward, renewing his resolve to work out.

• Linda teased Lin Rui about rewarding him herself, while he admitted he needed to get stronger for the remaining stages of his wager with the Jones sisters.
• Pastor Borg showed Lin Rui an abandoned gym and gave him its key, warning him to train during the day because gang members frequented the area at night.
• Lin Rui cleared a small area and began exercising, but soreness, work, and rain left him training only once during the week.
• Cynthia told Lin Rui that Toby’s teacher praised his progress and that he was likely to earn an A, while the food truck’s profits remained steady.
• Cynthia told Lin Rui that the Jones family planned to give him an enhanced version of triple the pleasure, and Lin Rui renewed his resolve to work out.

Lin Rui trained at the gym with Toby and completed a mission reward that temporarily granted him half of Toby’s attributes. The card transformed Lin Rui into a heavily muscled figure, leaving Toby convinced he had used a powerful drug.

• Lin Rui completed an exhausting rowing workout and prepared to train his legs as his strength continued to improve.
• Toby arrived after school, and Lin Rui let him into the gym so they could train together.
• Lin Rui trained squats while Toby exercised on a spin bike and continued losing weight.
• A notification announced that Lin Rui’s mission to help Toby lose twenty kilograms was complete and awarded him a Lesser Attribute Enhancement Card.
• Lin Rui activated the card, and his muscles rapidly grew as his attributes increased.
• Toby saw Lin Rui’s transformed body and asked what high-tech drug he had taken.

After using the card to enhance his abilities, Lin Rui tested his extraordinary strength and fitness at the gym with Toby, who assumed he had taken steroids. On their way home, Lin Rui killed an armed robber who threatened them, then hurried Toby away from the scene.

• Lin Rui easily squatted with a hundred kilograms, then completed twelve repetitions with a hundred and forty kilograms while Toby blamed his sudden strength on steroids.
• Lin Rui tested several other exercises and showed strength, endurance, explosive power, and reaction speed far beyond ordinary people.
• As Lin Rui and Toby walked through their dangerous neighborhood, Lin Rui noticed a suspicious man watching them and warned Toby to hurry at the convenience store.
• A white man threatened Lin Rui and Toby with a gun, so Lin Rui dodged and struck the robber's throat, leaving him choking and convulsing on the pavement.
• Lin Rui pulled Toby into an alley and left, while the convenience store clerk called a body collection service about the dying man.

Lin Rui returned to the church after taking Toby to the subway, while Toby’s weight loss and improved behavior impressed another mother. Mrs. Anderson then brought her rebellious daughter Molly to meet Leon and asked him to tutor her, leaving Molly to challenge him about whether he had a girlfriend.

• Lin Rui took Toby to the subway and returned to the church without Toby learning that he had killed a would-be robber.
• Toby returned home lighter and more energetic, and Mrs. Jones praised Leon’s success as his tutor to a visiting mother.
• The visiting mother asked Mrs. Jones for Leon’s contact information because her daughter was struggling at school and had joined a gang.
• Mrs. Anderson went to Pastor Borg’s church with her daughter Molly and asked Leon to help straighten her out.
• Leon emerged from the bathroom wearing only a bath towel, and Molly stared at him before asking provocatively whether he had a girlfriend.

Lin Rui agreed to help Mrs. Anderson steer Molly away from a Bronx gang and keep her on track, while refusing to force a romance. Mrs. Anderson arranged for Molly to live at the church with Lin Rui, promising him a reward for looking after her.

• Molly confessed to Mrs. Anderson that she was attracted to Lin Rui and hurriedly tried to improve her appearance.
• Father Borg told Lin Rui that the church had drawn more people since Lin Rui arrived and asked him to help Molly.
• Mrs. Anderson asked Lin Rui to date Molly and explained that Molly wanted to join a dangerous neighborhood gang.
• Lin Rui agreed to treat Molly like a younger sister and protect her from bad influences.
• Mrs. Anderson arranged for Molly to live at the church, attend school, and work out with Lin Rui, then promised Lin Rui a reward for caring for her.

Mrs. Anderson entrusted Molly to Lin Rui, who refused her advances and brought her into the Nightmare Space on an armed patrol. After Lin Rui showed Molly what gang life could lead to, she admitted she had only rebelled against her mother for fun as they continued through the darkness.

• Mrs. Anderson brought Molly to the church, paid Lin Rui to care for her, and received his promise to keep her on the right track.
• Molly tried to spend the night in Lin Rui's room, but he sent her back to bed and said he would show her the price of freedom.
• At midnight, Lin Rui joined Master Borg on an armed patrol, and Molly unexpectedly appeared in the Nightmare Space and followed them.
• Lin Rui showed Molly people twisted by the darkness and warned her that joining a gang could cost her her body, will, and dignity.
• Lin Rui killed a charging monster with his flaming sword and told Molly he would end her suffering if she ever became one of the fallen.
• Molly said she had only wanted to rebel against her mother for fun, and she continued the patrol with Lin Rui and Master Borg.

Molly woke at the church and went to school with her mother, admitting she had abandoned her plan to join a gang but still wanting Leon as her boyfriend. After they left, Pastor Borg learned from Officer Kane that a string of apparently natural deaths among homeless people had improved neighborhood crime statistics and might be linked to supernatural urban legends.

• Lin Rui woke Molly and told her to get ready because Mrs. Anderson would take her to school at seven thirty.
• Molly ate breakfast with Pastor Borg and learned that Leon had left early with Samantha to set up his food truck in Central Park.
• Mrs. Anderson picked Molly up, and Molly apologized for wanting to join a gang before saying she wanted Leon as her boyfriend.
• Pastor Borg saw body-recovery workers load a corpse into an ambulance while Officer Kane explained that rents had risen after crime figures improved.
• Officer Kane told Pastor Borg that ten homeless people had died in two months, with no evidence of violence or suspicious activity, and speculated that supernatural rules might be responsible.

Lin Rui trained with his enhancement card at the Bronx gym, where Molly arrived with her classmates and they mocked the run-down equipment. He silenced them with a heavy squat, but a newcomer at the entrance challenged his strength and compared him unfavorably to himself.

• Lin Rui returned to the gym and used his enhancement card to train with a 100-kilogram barbell.
• Molly brought seven or eight classmates to the gym, and they criticized the old equipment while sizing up Lin Rui.
• A quest urged Lin Rui to prove himself after the teenagers looked down on him, and he performed a set of squats in front of them.
• Lin Rui asked Molly to add weight and then lifted a 150-kilogram barbell for a squat, stunning the teenagers.
• A mocking voice at the entrance called Lin Rui the Asian kid stronger than Toby and claimed Lin Rui was no match for him.

Lin Rui and Toby fought off the gang members who attacked the gym, and Lin Rui defeated their leader with a barbell. A hidden quest awarded Lin Rui one free attribute point.

• The gang leader confronted Lin Rui while one of the thugs tried to grab Molly, who fled down the corridor.
• Lin Rui struck the gang leader with a water bottle and dumbbell, then urged Toby to fight.
• Toby charged one thug into the dumbbell rack, while the remaining two fled as Lin Rui advanced on them.
• The gang leader opened a butterfly knife, but Lin Rui blocked the gym exit and thrust a bare barbell into his chest.
• The hidden quest declared Lin Rui victorious and granted him one free attribute point.

Lin Rui, Toby, Molly, and their classmates fought off George’s gang at the church gym, then gave their accounts at the precinct. Officer Kane recognized Lin Rui as Leon and said the police would review the gym’s surveillance footage before deciding what happened.

• Molly escaped the thug holding her and kicked him in the groin while Toby continued beating George.
• Lin Rui stopped Toby when police sirens approached, and Toby, Molly, and the students acted injured and frightened as officers entered the gym.
• At the precinct, the thugs claimed they had been attacked, while Toby, Molly, and the students described the gang’s threats and assault.
• George accused Lin Rui of striking him with a barbell, and Lin Rui said the gym cameras would prove he acted in self-defense.
• Officer Kane recognized Lin Rui as Leon through Pastor Borg and said the police would check the footage.

After Lin Rui fought off five gang punks at the gym, surveillance footage confirmed his self-defense claim and helped him and the others get released from the police station. Pastor Borg praised Lin Rui’s restraint, while the ride home left Molly and Toby marveling at the fight and Lin Rui’s preparation.

• Agent Robin suspected Lin Rui was unusual and bet the deputy chief that Lin Rui would leave the station without charges.
• Officer Kane reported that gym surveillance showed the gang punks had started the fight and that Lin Rui had acted in self-defense.
• Mrs. Anderson’s lawyer demanded the release of the children, and their parents and guardians completed the paperwork and took them home.
• Pastor Borg praised Lin Rui for decisively stopping the gang punks without attacking them excessively.
• Molly excitedly recounted the fight to her mother, while Toby asked Lin Rui why he had installed cameras at the gym.
• Lin Rui told Toby that he had prepared for trouble because he knew someone would come looking for it.

Lin Rui left the chapel to seek Sophia’s help with Molly and the neighborhood gang, but Sophia confronted him for visiting less often and refused to help. The chapter ended with Lin Rui taking her hand and promising to visit at least three times a week.

• Essen Borg told Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Anderson how gangs targeted vulnerable children with violence and drugs, while Toby and Molly joked about the fight at the gym.
• Lin Rui said the gang’s leader could be dealt with by killing him, then left the chapel and drove to the Gershwin Theatre to enter Nightmare Space.
• Lin Rui found the tower’s staircase stretching endlessly until Sophia appeared in the sitting room and accused him of neglecting her.
• Lin Rui asked Sophia for help guiding Molly back to her mother and for spells to protect himself from the gang, but she refused.
• Lin Rui took Sophia’s hand and promised to visit her at least three times a week.

Sophia realized her dream about Lin Rui’s fight had matched real events and used what she remembered to investigate him. Meanwhile, Lin Rui kept running his popular food truck, and Linda warned that its growing fame could attract jealousy.

• Sophia woke from a dream about Lin Rui, recorded fragments about his gym fight, and reviewed her notes about Leon.
• Sophia got the late-night food supplier’s phone number and asked Andrea about Leon, learning that his fight and police-station visit matched her dream.
• Lin Rui left Sophia’s dream with the single-use Suggestion Technique and Malice Detection spells, but learned he lacked enough Spirit to master magic.
• Lin Rui continued operating his Central Park food truck as online attention and revenue grew.
• Linda showed Lin Rui a popular travel-guide post about him and warned that the food truck’s success could make others jealous.

Lin Rui earned well from his food truck, read his mother’s worried messages, and saw a dead body in the subway on his way back to the Bronx. At the church gym, he challenged Vincent to keep training despite his doubts, then explained that he fought bigger opponents because he had no choice.

• Lin Rui split the food truck’s tips with Linda, then left for the gym as Samantha took over his shift.
• Lin Rui read messages from his mother, including her warning to stay safe, before riding the subway back to the Bronx.
• Lin Rui noticed a freshly dead person on the subway floor while the other passengers carried on without reacting.
• Vincent asked Lin Rui if he could work out at the church gym, and Lin Rui showed him how to begin running on a treadmill.
• Vincent gave up after less than a minute and said he wanted to be strong like Toby but believed his small frame would prevent it.
• Lin Rui told Vincent that giving up so quickly would get him nowhere, and answered that he fought bigger opponents because he had no choice.

After Lin Rui broke through in strength at the gym, Pastor Essen Borg offered him a paid role attracting local children to exercise there. Lin Rui accepted the deal and began eyeing Molly as his first target.

• Lin Rui gained one point of strength after pushing through an intense workout, while Toby teased him about his supposed shrinking testicles.
• Molly, her friends, and several boys visited the gym after word spread that Lin Rui had defeated five gang punks.
• Pastor Essen Borg praised Lin Rui for bringing children to the church-owned gym and proposed making the activity an official charitable project.
• Essen offered Lin Rui a personal subsidy of ten thousand dollars a month for keeping ten students coming to the gym, with another thousand for each additional student.
• Lin Rui accepted the deal, and Molly shivered when she noticed him looking at her with a sly smile.

Lin Rui used a dream and the eye in his palm to plant guidance for Molly, urging her to grow more capable and keep her rebelliousness within limits. Molly woke with the red lines meant to remain in her heart, while Lin Rui revealed that helping children change would also earn him money.

• Molly grew suspicious of Lin Rui and spent the evening searching for the prank she believed he had prepared.
• At midnight, Molly entered a recurring dream of a ruined chapel and found Lin Rui waiting with Pastor Essen Borg.
• After Pastor Essen Borg left to patrol, Lin Rui showed Molly the eye in his palm and used it to guide her toward changing herself without harming others.
• Molly resisted only mildly, and Lin Rui told her the guidance would remain even after she forgot the dream.
• Molly's shaved hair returned to normal in the dream, and Lin Rui explained that he wanted to earn money by helping Molly and Toby change.

Molly woke feeling peaceful and newly open to school after a dream she could barely remember, while Lin Rui recruited Adrian to help protect his church gym project from gangs. Adrian revealed a fierce past and agreed to help for the money, leaving Lin Rui unsure what he had set in motion.

• Molly told Mrs. Anderson that school no longer felt like a cage and that she was looking forward to learning, though she could not remember whether Leon had spoken to her.
• Lin Rui explained to Adrian and his wife that he needed students from Forty Block and Forty-One Block for the church gym project and that gangs might retaliate.
• Adrian's wife asked about the grant, and Lin Rui said the project would pay two hundred dollars per student each month.
• Adrian offered to help, insisting that his Mexican background made him better suited than ordinary street toughs to handle gangs.
• Lin Rui clarified that he only wanted to prevent gang harassment, but Adrian said he was interested because there was money to be made.

After George was discharged, he planned revenge on Lin Rui, Toby, and Molly with the Will-o'-the-Wisp gang. Lin Rui found George at a party and prepared to prevent the gang’s plans from becoming a threat.

• George’s gang threw him a party after his hospital discharge, and a green-haired underling told him they had found Lin Rui’s routine and would cripple him.
• The underling also proposed targeting Toby and dragging Molly back to the gang, and George agreed to the plan.
• Lin Rui watched the police fail to stop the party, then explained that he had delegated recruitment to Adrian while handling dangerous gang matters himself.
• Because George had filed a lawsuit against him, Lin Rui located the party using Toby’s information and Malice Detection.
• At midnight, George, drunk and high at the party, faced the nightmare Lin Rui had brought to him.

Lin Rui fought George and his three demonic lackeys in a nightmare-dark courtyard, using a flaming longsword and ice armor to defeat them. After killing George, Lin Rui survived the battle with his strength nearly spent and received confirmation that he had passed the trial.

• George and his three lackeys convulsed at the villa party as they transformed into demons, and a girl fled to call 911.
• Lin Rui activated an Attribute Enhancement Card, equipped his flaming sword and ice armor, and charged George and the three lackeys.
• Lin Rui killed the bone-winged lackey and the tentacled lackey with his sword and shield.
• George battled Lin Rui with overwhelming strength, but Lin Rui severed his claws and drove his flaming sword through his chest.
• George disintegrated into black sludge, and Lin Rui received a notification that he had survived the trial.

Peggy and Officer Kane investigated the gruesome deaths of George and his three companions, while Professor Winters pushed to study the bodies as evidence of neural control. Lin Rui went about his routine after the midnight duel, but rumors that he had killed George spread and made the new gym recruits treat him like a neighborhood boss.

• Peggy examined George and the three other victims, whose bodies had been twisted into unnatural shapes, and heard a witness describe them destroying themselves as if trapped in a nightmare.
• Officer Kane watched footage showing the four men mutilating themselves in unison, while Peggy suspected something had forced them to act.
• Professor Winters argued that the deaths revealed a new form of neural control and demanded the bodies for his laboratory, but Kane insisted they follow police procedure.
• Lin Rui spent his reward attribute point on agility, then continued selling burgers and working out while Toby and Vincent trained at the gym.
• Adrian brought several Latino boys to work out for a monthly subsidy, and they praised Lin Rui after hearing rumors that he had killed George.
• Lin Rui denied the rumors, but the boys decided to follow him, leaving him worried that the false story had become a problem.

Lin Rui welcomed hungry Latino boys into his gym and gave Adrian’s nine-year-old son Juan a hundred dollars. After Adrian confronted him about George’s death, Lin Rui denied involvement and warned Adrian not to probe further, prompting Adrian to offer to work for him.

• Lin Rui let the newly recruited Latino students eat donated food at the gym, and Adrian explained that many went hungry after school because their parents worked long hours.
• Adrian introduced his nine-year-old son Juan as another recruit, and Lin Rui gave the boy a hundred-dollar meeting gift.
• Adrian told Lin Rui that George and his men had died horribly and suggested Lin Rui had killed them, but Lin Rui denied it.
• Adrian caught Lin Rui knowing George had died at an orgy, and Lin Rui deflected while warning Adrian that discussing the case could be dangerous.
• Adrian praised Lin Rui’s decisiveness and offered to work for him, and Lin Rui told him not to touch his shoulder.

Lin Rui learned that rumors tied him to the brutal deaths of George and three others, while the police evidence suggested the victims had died after taking an illicit drug. The chapter ended with Molly admitting she had started the mob-boss rumor and telling her mother that living with Leon felt more exciting than joining a gang.

• Molly returned to the church and told Lin Rui that classmates were calling him the Bronx's newest mob boss, while Toby and Mrs. Anderson reacted with suspicion and concern.
• At dinner, Essen Borg shared information from Officer Kane: a camera had recorded the deaths, which appeared to involve drug-induced self-mutilation, though the case remained inexplicable.
• Molly explained that George had planned to kill Lin Rui, Toby, and her, making Lin Rui an obvious suspect to neighborhood gossips.
• Toby and Molly suggested Lin Rui might have superpowers, and Lin Rui jokingly claimed he had used them to punish gang thugs; the family laughed and dropped the subject.
• After dinner, Mrs. Anderson told Molly she also thought Leon had superpowers because he had changed her, and Molly admitted she had started the school rumor about him being a mob boss.