Chapter Summaries

Reborn in 2005 with a demon hunter system, Lin Rui returned to America determined not to repeat the hardships of his first life. He exposed the study-abroad agent who had exploited him and left the agent facing an investigation by airport police.

• Lin Rui arrived at Newark International Airport in 2005, learned he had been reborn as a trainee demon hunter, and checked his stats.
• Lin Rui recognized the study-abroad agent who had mistreated and overcharged him in his previous life.
• The agent demanded more money and threatened Lin Rui, who took his luggage from the car and walked away.
• Lin Rui reported the agent to an airport police officer for operating an unlicensed transport service.
• Lin Rui pointed out the agent's expired license, fake plates, contraband, and possible tax problems, prompting the officer to investigate him thoroughly.

Lin Rui traveled to a poor Bronx neighborhood and sought shelter in the church run by Essen Borg, a pastor he remembered from his previous life. Essen agreed to let him stay and help him find a school, while a quest system activated and warned him to prepare to fight evil.

• Lin Rui rejected illegal work and decided to seek help from Essen Borg, whose charitable work and connections he remembered from his previous life.
• Lin Rui traveled to the Fortieth Block in the Bronx and hurried into a small church to escape suspicious people following him.
• Essen Borg welcomed Lin Rui, and the congregation finished its service before the pastor asked how he could help.
• Lin Rui introduced himself as Leon, claimed he had lost his way after falling out with his study-abroad agency, and asked for help.
• Essen checked Lin Rui's documents, offered him a place to stay, and promised to help him find a school.
• The Quest System activated and warned Lin Rui that his new sanctuary stood amid evil and that he should be ready to fight it.

Lin Rui settled into Essen Borg’s church, but at midnight the system opened Nightmare Space and transformed the sanctuary into a medieval refuge surrounded by evil spirits. Armed with an enchanted sword and lantern, Lin Rui followed Essen Borg out to begin a patrol.

• Lin Rui helped Essen Borg distribute food and learned about the hardship and drug addiction affecting New York’s homeless.
• A police officer verified that Essen Borg had taken in Lin Rui, while Essen Borg promised to seek him a school.
• At midnight, the system announced that Nightmare Space had opened and warned Lin Rui that evil surrounded the sanctuary.
• Essen Borg revealed himself as a gray-robed wizard, and Lin Rui found the church transformed into a medieval sanctuary with demon-hunting gear.
• Lin Rui and Essen Borg shut the windows against deceptive evil spirits, and Essen Borg temporarily enchanted Lin Rui’s sword.
• Essen Borg gave Lin Rui a lantern and led him through the church’s back door to begin their armed patrol.

Lin Rui patrolled the nightmare streets with Mr. Borg, killed a corrupted homeless man, and gained a point in Strength upon completing the mission. The next morning, he learned that the same man had died in reality, while Mr. Borg began to recall the dream.

• Lin Rui and Mr. Borg patrolled the darkened streets, relighting lamps and encountering fallen people corrupted by evil spirits.
• Lin Rui killed the homeless man who attacked him, and the man’s black aura dispersed as a human silhouette faded away.
• After the Nightmare Space ended, Lin Rui received one attribute point and added it to Strength.
• Lin Rui prepared breakfast for Mr. Borg, then chose to accompany him to collect donated supplies.
• Lin Rui recognized the body of the homeless man from the nightmare, and a police officer identified him as Big Powell, a former Wall Street investor who had likely died of a drug overdose.
• Mr. Borg said he remembered seeing the homeless man in his dream, but stopped himself from explaining further.

Lin Rui helped the old pastor collect donated food and hand out meals, then accepted Mrs. Jones’s offer to tutor her child for extra money. After Linda flirted with him and left, the old pastor received a call saying she wanted Lin Rui’s number to make friends.

• Lin Rui helped the old pastor load donated food at a Manhattan supermarket, where Mrs. Jones offered him tutoring work and gave him a prepaid Nokia phone.
• Lin Rui agreed to tutor Mrs. Jones’s child in the Bronx for twenty dollars an hour and arranged to begin that evening.
• Lin Rui and the old pastor collected more donated groceries before returning to the church, where they handed out over two hundred meals to homeless people.
• Lin Rui flirted with Linda while they helped distribute food, but she declined to give him her number and drove away.
• The old pastor told Lin Rui that Linda had called to ask for his number because she thought he looked innocent and wanted to make friends.

Lin Rui began tutoring Toby Jones by forcing him to clean his filthy room and help with the neglected housework instead of starting lessons. After Cynthia returned and saw the changes, she kissed Lin Rui, leaving Toby feeling abandoned.

• Mrs. Jones drove Lin Rui to her home and explained that she needed him to help Toby improve his studies.
• Toby resisted tutoring, but Lin Rui persuaded him to follow instructions and ordered him to clean his room.
• Lin Rui confronted Mr. Jones, who explained that injury and financial hardship had left him unable to help care for the family.
• Lin Rui had Toby clean the kitchen and mop the floor after he finished tidying his bedroom.
• Cynthia came home, praised Lin Rui for making Toby do the housework, and kissed him while Toby asked if anyone would stand up for him.

Lin Rui, who introduced himself as Leon, began tutoring Toby and made him do chores, while Toby’s three older sisters each offered him sexual rewards for improving their brother’s grades. He agreed to their escalating promises and stayed overnight at the Joneses’ house, where Mr. Jones worried about his daughters’ interest in him and the family’s growing financial hardship.

• Cynthia kissed Lin Rui and promised him increasingly intimate rewards if he improved Toby’s grades, while Mr. Jones encouraged Lin Rui to consider dating her.
• Samantha arrived, repeated Cynthia’s offer, kissed Lin Rui, and warned Toby not to waste his last chance.
• Andrea came home, kissed Lin Rui, offered the same rewards as her sisters, and Lin Rui pledged to accept all three sisters’ promises.
• Toby cleaned the house and prepared food, and Mr. Jones told his exhausted wife that Lin Rui had frightened Toby into helping with chores.
• Mr. Jones told Mrs. Jones that Lin Rui was staying in the guest room and that he was worried about how enthusiastically their three daughters treated him.

Lin Rui struggled through a Nightmare Space mission to tutor Toby, whose basic math skills were almost nonexistent, and failed to teach him enough to complete it. After waking, Lin Rui proposed turning the Jones family's access to donated near-expiration food into a church charity sale, leaving Mrs. Jones and her children impressed by his plan.

• Lin Rui entered Toby's dream and received a mission to teach him knowledge and help him escape his predicament.
• Lin Rui tried to tutor Toby in arithmetic, but Toby could not grasp even basic calculations, and the Nightmare Space eventually collapsed with the mission incomplete.
• Lin Rui learned that Mrs. Jones worked exhausting shifts and took supermarket food marked as expired to help support her family.
• Lin Rui suggested that Father Borg organize a tax-exempt charity sale of donated food to support struggling people, including the Jones family.
• Andrea kissed Lin Rui, Samantha praised his cleverness, and Cynthia told Toby to learn from him, while Toby trembled at the sight of Lin Rui.

Lin Rui persuaded Pastor Borg and the church to help arrange permits for a charity street stall selling food discarded by Whole Foods to raise money for the Jones family's medical bills. While he waited for the process to advance, he helped at the church and considered getting a car, but Toby's lack of progress kept Lin Rui trapped in his tutoring mission.

• Lin Rui inspected Whole Foods's discarded produce and arranged with Mrs. Jones to use fruit and supplies for a food stall.
• Lin Rui persuaded Pastor Borg to support a charity sale for the Jones family and proposed selling food on the street.
• Pastor Borg contacted the church, which investigated Mr. Jones's situation and agreed to advance the permit application.
• Lin Rui spent half a month helping distribute aid at the church while waiting on paperwork and considering buying a used car.
• Toby continued making no progress in his studies, leaving Lin Rui unable to complete his tutoring mission or trigger new missions.

Lin Rui secured a food truck for his charity food project with Linda’s help and negotiated a temporary vendor permit while arguing that reasonable operating costs and possible losses could leave no proceeds to turn over. He left the permit office with the staff member wondering whether he had really just arrived in America.

• Lin Rui collected donated food from Mrs. Jones and told her that the church had arranged a food truck for his charity sale.
• Linda revealed that she had obtained the truck and offered to help operate it in exchange for joining Lin Rui’s project and observing it for her social assistance paper.
• Lin Rui learned from Pastor Essen Borg that Linda had secured the truck, then agreed to let her join as long as her reports did not describe him directly.
• Linda showed Lin Rui the former film prop truck, which he could use but did not own.
• Lin Rui applied for a temporary vendor permit and persuaded the staff member that project expenses and even early losses were reasonable under the charitable arrangement.

Lin Rui and Linda prepared a church charity-sale food truck using donated food and opened near Central Park, where Lin Rui served their first customers. The truck attracted a steady stream of tourists, and Lin Rui watched the money roll in.

• Lin Rui collected donated fruit and milk from Mrs. Jones and explained that he would gather supplies from several places.
• Lin Rui and Linda prepared fruit, sandwiches, burgers, and hot dogs, while Linda questioned whether selling donated food for profit was legal and safe.
• Lin Rui drove the food truck from The Bronx to the Upper East Side near Central Park and showed two neighborhood officers his permits.
• Lin Rui served the officers burgers, a sandwich, and milkshakes, explaining that the drinks had reduced sugar when they complained they were bland.
• As more tourists arrived, Lin Rui and Linda became overwhelmed with customers and watched cash accumulate in the register.

Lin Rui’s food truck drew a huge crowd near Central Park, but its supplies ran out quickly, so Toby stole and later robbed church relief stations for more food. After selling out during the lunch rush, Lin Rui tried a rival stall’s burger and decided his own prices needed to go up.

• Lin Rui and Linda sold out of beef and mushroom burgers and banana milkshakes, so Lin Rui sent Toby to bring over church relief meals.
• Toby admitted he had stolen meals from several churches, and Linda told him the truck had earned five hundred dollars that morning.
• Toby used Linda’s money to hire friends to rob relief stations, then brought back food including KFC Family Buckets for Lin Rui to sell.
• Lin Rui and Linda sold all their stock during the lunch rush and closed the truck to get food.
• Lin Rui bought a five-dollar burger from a nearby stall, found it far worse than his own food, and decided to raise his prices.

After earning over $1,700 from the food truck, Lin Rui organized the Jones family to expand their charity-sale business and prepare for round-the-clock shifts. They gathered supplies and staff for their first night of sales, with Andrea pointing them toward a potential order at the Gershwin Theatre.

• Lin Rui counted the day's earnings, paid Toby and Linda, and divided the remaining money among himself, Linda, the Jones family, and expenses.
• Lin Rui warned that the church would eventually claim most of the profits, then planned day and night routes, shifts, and new sources of food supplies.
• Mrs. Jones and her daughters joined the plan, and Mrs. Jones arranged for Whole Foods employees to prepare hundreds of portions using supermarket ingredients.
• Mrs. Jones delivered milkshake base and food boxes to Lin Rui, while Mr. Jones offered to join the night shift with his handgun for protection.
• Samantha, Cynthia, and Toby prepared to accompany Lin Rui, and Andrea told him that nearly a hundred people at the Gershwin Theatre might buy late-night meals.

Lin Rui completed a mission by persuading Toby to take studying seriously, then accepted a new mission to supervise Toby's weight loss. While delivering food to the Gershwin Theatre, Lin Rui was unexpectedly confronted by Sophia in witch's costume as Nightmare Space appeared to begin.

• Lin Rui convinced Toby to try studying, completed the tutoring mission, and spent the reward attribute point on Constitution.
• Lin Rui accepted a mission to supervise Toby in losing at least twenty kilograms and stopped him from eating a Big Mac meal.
• Lin Rui delivered late-night meals to the Gershwin Theatre, where Andrea's cast and crew ate while he waited for payment.
• Sophia appeared in a witch's costume amid white mist and called Lin Rui a demon hunter in her magic tower, making him realize he had entered Nightmare Space.

Lin Rui met Sophia Kaman, a witch in the Nightmare Space, and accepted a quest to connect her with Essen Borg. Sophia also gave him a Suggestion Technique, which Lin Rui used on Toby to make him embrace studying and lose weight.

• Lin Rui convinced Sophia that Essen Borg's church was a sanctuary resisting the darkness, and Sophia asked him to tell the priest about her.
• Sophia assigned Lin Rui the Same-City Vigil quest to establish contact between her and Essen Borg, with one attribute point as the reward.
• Sophia inscribed the Suggestion Technique on Lin Rui's palm, and Lin Rui returned to the theater before rejoining Andrea and the Jones family after their food truck sold out.
• After falling asleep at the Jones home, Lin Rui entered the Nightmare Space and used the spell on Toby, forcing him to repeat that he loved studying and would lose weight and change his habits.

Lin Rui expanded the food truck operation with help from the Jones family and arranged for it to run around the clock. After discussing his faith with Pastor Essen Borg, he prompted the pastor to research the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, leaving him alarmed by its claims about God’s family descending to earth.

• Mrs. Jones gave Lin Rui a list of supermarket suppliers and helped arrange staffing for the food truck’s shifts.
• Toby surprised Mrs. Jones by choosing to catch the school bus and promising to study hard and lose weight.
• Lin Rui worked long hours on the food truck and told Pastor Essen Borg about its earnings while keeping his cost-cutting methods private.
• Lin Rui described the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to Pastor Essen Borg as a church-state union and later let the pastor look up its beliefs online.
• Pastor Essen Borg learned about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s claims and rushed to warn Lin Rui not to believe in its God.

Lin Rui reassured his parents that he was earning money in New York, then entered the Nightmare Space and found the old priest wounded after Toby had robbed the shelter. After completing a quest by connecting the priest with Sophia Kaman, Lin Rui joined an armed patrol and freed the worst-mutated fallen ones, pushing back the darkness around the shelter.

• Lin Rui told his parents he had found a way to earn money and planned to send them most of his food truck income.
• Lin Rui found the old priest wounded in the Nightmare Space and realized events in reality could affect that world.
• The old priest explained that a powerful evil spirit had stolen lamp oil and led fallen ones to rob the shelter, and Lin Rui suspected the culprit was Toby.
• Lin Rui told the old priest about Sophia Kaman, completing the Same-City Vigil quest and earning an attribute point that he added to Constitution.
• The old priest enchanted Lin Rui's sword and joined him on an armed patrol around the shelter.
• Lin Rui killed the most severely mutated fallen ones, and the darkness around the shelter receded as its lamplight grew brighter.

Pastor Borg and Linda learned that seven homeless people had died under mysterious circumstances in the neighborhood, echoing an unexplained death from two weeks earlier. Linda pursued the case while Lin Rui prepared to take the food truck out, and Peggy teased him about visiting the morgue.

• Pastor Borg left the church and learned from officer Kane that seven homeless people had died, with no clear cause of death.
• Linda arrived and questioned Peggy, who explained that the deaths resembled an unexplained case from two weeks earlier.
• Linda decided to investigate and report on the deaths, leaving Lin Rui without a partner for the food truck that day.
• Peggy introduced herself to Lin Rui and joked that she would take him on a morgue tour, making him freeze as Linda and Peggy laughed.

Lin Rui learned that a man named Doyle was demanding protection money from the food truck, and refused to accept the extortion. After a busy day running the truck, he found out that Doyle had appeared after midnight.

• Linda stayed behind while Lin Rui traveled to Manhattan to take over the food truck from Adrian and his wife.
• Adrian told Lin Rui that he had sold tacos after the original stock ran out, and Lin Rui paid the couple and agreed to add tacos to the menu.
• Adrian warned Lin Rui that a balding man had demanded five hundred dollars a day in protection money and threatened to cause trouble.
• Lin Rui rejected the idea of paying the gang and said he would rather hire an off-duty cop.
• Lin Rui worked the busy daytime shift, then asked Adrian when the man had appeared; Adrian said he came after midnight and called himself Doyle.

Linda and Peggy investigated the suspicious deaths of seven homeless people, while Professor Winters found signs of drug overdoses and suspected a killer was involved. Lin Rui learned that Doyle was a police informant and contraband seller, then asked Andrea to point him out.

• Linda watched Professor Winters examine the seven bodies but had to leave the morgue because she felt nauseated.
• Linda and Peggy discussed how the deaths might go unreported, and Peggy said the scene and surveillance footage made the deaths suspicious.
• Professor Winters found evidence of drug overdoses and told Peggy that the police would not investigate without more evidence.
• Lin Rui delivered tacos to the Gershwin Theatre, where a security guard warned him that Doyle was a police informant who extorted people and sold contraband.
• Lin Rui asked Andrea about Doyle, and she said he harassed women at the theatre, so Lin Rui told her to point him out.