Chapter Summaries

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.