Yu Hai

Biodata

Personality

Yu Hai is cautious and observant, particularly when dealing with unfamiliar people. Although he initially accepts information from Wu Si, he never fully trusts him. He notices that the supposedly helpful guide avoids toys yet willingly approaches the counting goat, recognizes the inconsistency, and prevents Ye Jiang from entering the trap 152.

His sense of responsibility persists even when he cannot protect himself. After awakening from severe contamination, he staggers toward Ye Jiang while repeating that he must protect her, unaware that the danger has already passed. Once healed, he prioritizes checking the survivors rather than satisfying his curiosity about the crisis 184 185.

Yu Hai sees the mall’s abundant source energy as a potential miracle for humanity, but excitement does not erase his caution. His encounters with cooperative monsters, conscious toys, and the impostor’s multiple abilities repeatedly challenge his understanding of the world. He seeks explanations while remaining wary of humanity’s vulnerability to monsters 150 160 180 188.

Abilities & Skills

Silver Needle Attacks

• Unleashes a rain of fine, tough silver needles capable of blasting deep pits into flooring 152.
• Overwhelms Wu Si, a B-rank electrical-circuit ability user, in their initial exchange; Wu Si changes targets after recognizing the gap between them 152.
• Cannot maintain his ability under the giant cat’s overwhelming contamination: it repeatedly forms and disperses before he loses consciousness 181.

Contamination Resistance

• Excels in the contamination-resistance training required of Ability Control Bureau field personnel 184.
• Regains consciousness before everyone else present after the cat withdraws its contamination, despite some victims having stronger abilities than his 184.
• His resistance is not immunity. He awakens with ulcerated, blackened skin and lingering mental contamination, both of which Ye Jiang heals 184.

Combat Experience and Mental Discipline

• Has extensive battlefield experience and considerable mental fortitude 159 160.
• Uses an unnamed secret technique to settle his nerves and plan around a suspected monster blocking the expedition’s route 160.
• Resists the instinct to submit under Rong Yin’s oppressive gaze, forcing himself to raise his head despite fear and physical strain 166 167.

Investigation and Field Leadership

• Recognizes the mall’s energy as the same source energy he experienced beneath the Blood Moon in the trial grounds as a student 150.
• Has access to classified monster information and identifies Ye Jiang’s description of three children with Monsters No. 3, No. 5, and No. 7 160 161.
• Reassures stranded civilians, reunites his scattered team, and directs evacuation efforts during the mall crisis 174 176 180.

History

Stone-Door Expedition

Yu Hai leads the Ability Control Bureau’s eight-person expedition into the mysterious stone door in City A. After Ye Jiang crosses the threshold and vanishes, the others follow. He awakens alone in an enormous shopping mall containing giant gilded cats and wind-up toys 149.

He immediately recognizes the mall’s unusually dense source energy and considers its potential to help humans awaken abilities. Finding that his phone has no signal, he begins searching for his colleagues and the Healer. A wind-up pigeon attaches itself to him after he tries to help it and accidentally breaks it 150.

After reuniting with Ye Jiang, Yu Hai shares what he has learned from a supposed longtime resident. That man, Wu Si, attempts to lure them into a toy goat’s game. Yu Hai detects the trap and attacks; Ye Jiang subdues Wu Si, whom Yu Hai keeps alive for questioning. Wu Si admits that he entered the mall ten days earlier, not ten years earlier 152 153.

Climbing the Mall

Yu Hai remains on the first floor to obtain a toy task while Ye Jiang investigates the contaminated second floor. His pigeon assigns him an unexpectedly ordinary game in which he spends a day acting as its father 155 160.

When Ye Jiang returns, her account overturns his expectations: three monsters caused the contamination, and she persuaded them to search for his missing teammates. He identifies them as Monsters No. 3, No. 5, and No. 7 and revises his estimate of her strength. The pair continue upward, with Yu Hai completing tasks while Ye Jiang accompanies him without needing to do so 160 161.

Toy Graveyard and Song Cen

A spatial spell sealed within a toy transports Yu Hai into the Toy Graveyard, where he encounters Ye Jiang and Rong Yin. Despite his fear of Monster No. 0, the discovery of an old Bureau work ID draws his attention to a nearby skeleton 166 167 168.

He identifies the remains as Song Cen, a celebrated hero from three hundred years earlier. Hoping to recover a final message, he searches unsuccessfully for a detection bead, finding only a mirror shard. He preserves Song Cen’s ID and resolves to return for the remains after completing his mission 167.

Yu Hai stays behind to investigate the graveyard and right fallen toys at Ye Jiang’s request. His search yields no further useful discoveries. On returning to the occupied floors, he finds crowds in despair over reports that the promised ninety-ninth-floor exit and the mall’s rules are false 168 173.

Evacuation and Contamination Crisis

Yu Hai displays his Bureau ID and promises to bring the stranded civilians home. While climbing toward the ninety-ninth floor, he meets Monsters No. 3, No. 5, and No. 7, who return his unconscious teammates. He checks that they are unharmed and thanks the monsters 174.

During the evacuation, he arranges for Cheng Xin to replace weakening vine passages. The subsequent discovery of an impostor posing as Cheng Xin prompts him to accelerate the evacuation, especially after Ye Jiang warns that the infiltrator is probably a monster 176 180.

Yu Hai repeatedly tries to prevent Ye Jiang from entering the giant cat in the atrium. When the cats awaken and release overwhelming contamination, however, he cannot protect the civilians or maintain his ability and eventually loses consciousness 180 181.

Rescue and Return to Duty

After Ye Jiang resolves the crisis and the cat withdraws its contamination, Yu Hai is the first victim to awaken. She heals his injuries and clears his remaining mental contamination. He then checks the survivors and requests help restarting the evacuation 184 185.

Once Ye Jiang gains control of the mall, she opens an exit and sends him to bring in Bureau personnel. Afterward, Yu Hai submits his mission report and resumes fieldwork. He later escorts Ye Jiang into the Bureau, learning along the way that the monsters have remained in the mall to absorb its energy—a revelation that again unsettles his assumptions about that power 185 188.

Equipment & Recovered Items

• Ability Control Bureau work ID — Establishes his identity and reassures the stranded civilians when he publicly promises their rescue 174.
• Song Cen’s work ID — Recovered from the hero’s remains and preserved for delivery to the Bureau 167.
• Mirror shard — Found between Song Cen’s skeletal fingers. Yu Hai keeps it but later describes it as an ordinary shard without detectable energy; when Ye Jiang asks to see it, he has left it in his previous clothes 167 188.

Relationships

• Ye Jiang — The expedition’s Healer and the person whose safety he treats as a foremost responsibility. Her dealings with monsters astonish him, and she ultimately saves and heals him during the mall crisis 155 161 180 184.
• Wu Si — A deceptive guide whom Yu Hai exposes and interrogates. Later, Wu Si appeals to him as a Bureau representative when the stranded civilians lose hope 152 153 174.
• Rong Yin / Monster No. 0 — A figure Yu Hai deeply fears. He witnesses Rong Yin’s unusual patience toward Ye Jiang and accepts his promise to protect her, while remaining cautious about monster loyalties 166 167 180 188.
• Monsters No. 3, No. 5, and No. 7 — Recover his missing teammates at Ye Jiang’s request. Yu Hai thanks them, despite struggling to reconcile their assistance with his understanding of monsters 161 174.
• Song Cen — A historical Bureau hero whose remains Yu Hai identifies. He treats the recovered ID with respect and intends to retrieve the body after his mission 167.
• Chen Hong — A fellow A-rank ability user who explains the mall’s apparent deception and encourages continued efforts to locate an exit 174.

Notable Quotes

“I'll find a way to bring everyone home.” 174

“Healer, could you tell me everything you experienced on the second floor, from beginning to end?” 160