Recaps

Shen Hui and the other candidates took the test to connect their Creation Worlds to the Real World, and many participants succeeded. Shen Hui’s section remained quiet, leaving his success uncertain as Ji Xinfeng and the four elders watched with excitement.

• Shen Hui entered his test section and focused on connecting his Creation World to the Real World, while ripples formed around him unnoticed.
• The World Association’s leaders discussed the test’s risks and likely limits, and Branch President Shengnan suggested Chi Yan take Shen Hui as her disciple.
• Several candidates, including Ye Long, Zhuge Hongjing, Zhuge Yue, and Sun Jingjing, successfully brought their Creation Worlds into the Real World.
• The observers noticed that Shen Hui had not appeared among the successful candidates, and members of the Zhuge Family doubted him.
• Ji Xinfeng and the four elders seemed pleased as Shen Hui’s section remained quiet.

While most participants successfully descended their Creation Worlds, Shen Hui entered a strange state as the Death World’s will and rules took shape around him. At the last moment, his Creation World descended on a vast scale, covering the entire town in distorted space and black mist.

• Bai Fan, Zhuge Hongjing, and Ye Long explored their descended Creation Worlds, with Ye Long’s world showing the bizarre insect traits Shen Hui had helped him develop.
• More than sixty percent of the participants succeeded while Shen Hui remained still, surrounded by distortion and black fog as he became an embodiment of the Death World.
• Chi Yan and the other observers discussed ending the test, believing no more participants would succeed.
• A spatial ripple spread from Shen Hui’s compartment, and observers realized that he had finally succeeded.
• Shen Hui’s Creation World surged outward, twisting space and spreading ancient fear, freezing cold, and black mist across the town.

As Shen Hui manifested his world, its strange power invaded the Creation Worlds of people in the Real World and trapped them in a series of terrifying distortions. The chapter leaves them facing an immense creature beneath the sea as a familiar voice asks if they are all right.

• The manifested Creation Worlds shook and cracked as Shen Hui’s aura and gray-black mist invaded them, and Bai Fan recognized his power.
• Zhuge Hongjing, Sun Jingjing, and Ye Long reacted to the disturbance, while others struggled against the mist’s distortions and whispers.
• Some people severed their Creation Worlds from the Real World, only to find themselves isolated in a black, fog-filled place and unable to reconnect.
• They saw visions of fleeing figures crying out about the Great Ruin, dangerous shadows, and a colossal creature beneath an orange sunrise.
• They followed strange creatures into a silent sea and found a vast underwater complex surrounding a colossal being in the darkness.
• As they tried to look closer at the creature, a familiar human voice called out, asking whether everyone was all right.

Shen Hui’s out-of-control Death World enveloped the test site, filling everyone with terrifying illusions. Chi Yan entered his world and woke him, causing the manifested world to shatter and disappear.

• The people affected by Shen Hui’s Creation World regained their memories and gathered with World Association members, who explained that his world had gone out of control.
• Zhuge Zhaixing warned that Shen Hui had to be found and separated from the Real World before the dangerous aura caused more harm.
• The group entered Shen Hui’s partition and found him unconscious, transformed by his level-four world’s power into an inhuman Creator Form.
• Ji Xinfeng offered to sever Shen Hui’s connection to his world, but Chi Yan objected and volunteered to enter the world to wake him.
• Chi Yan invaded Shen Hui’s Death World and called to him, and Shen Hui opened his eyes as the manifested world shattered and vanished.

After waking from three days unconscious, Shen Hui learned that his Creation World’s arrival in the Real World had sparked a debate over restricting him. As the World Association agreed to place him under restrictions, Shen Hui appeared to challenge the decision.

• Shen Hui woke in a hospital room, and Qingxue told him he had been unconscious for three days after exhausting his mental energy.
• Qingxue explained that Shen Hui’s Creation World had affected people and caused a commotion, prompting some to call him dangerous.
• Shen Hui learned that Chi Yan, Ye Long, and others were discussing restrictions at the World Association, and he decided to join them.
• Ji Xinfeng argued that Shen Hui posed a threat, while Chi Yan and Zhuge Zhaixing opposed restricting him; most organizations sided with Ji Xinfeng and the five elders.
• As the discussion ended with Shen Hui set to be restricted, Shen Hui appeared and challenged the group for deciding his fate without his consent.

Shen Hui persuaded the World Association to let him search for a Giant God Cult stronghold instead of placing him under its control, in exchange for resources to strengthen his Creation World. President Fan Hao approved the deal and gave Shen Hui two weeks to provide intelligence, leaving him set to receive supplies after the Starry Sky Leaderboard test.

• Shen Hui challenged the World Association’s plan to control him by claiming he could find a Giant God Cult stronghold.
• Shen Hui demanded freedom from interference and a large amount of resources, and Chi Yan and the Council of Elders agreed to give his proposal a chance.
• Fan Hao arrived in person from the Small Thousand World and accepted Shen Hui’s conditions, warning him he would pay for deceiving the association.
• Fan Hao gave Shen Hui two weeks to produce intelligence on the Giant God Cult and arranged for Chi Yan to take him to the World Association’s supply pavilion after the Starry Sky Leaderboard test.

After Shen Hui was expelled from the Sea of Stars, he asked Chi Yan for the preserved bodies of Giant God Cult members so he could bring them into his Death World. He manifested the world in a remote wilderness, where its decay trait revived the corpses, leaving them twitching and standing.

• Fan Hao's pressure forced Shen Hui's consciousness back into the Real World, where he reunited with Qingxue at the World Association.
• Shen Hui waited for Chi Yan, then asked her for the Giant God Cult members' preserved bodies; she warned him about the dangers of investigating the cult and told him the Starry Sky Leaderboard test would begin in three days.
• Chi Yan took Shen Hui and the bodies in a pickup truck to an isolated wilderness so he could manifest his Creation World safely.
• Shen Hui connected the Death World to the Real World and manifested it without losing control, though he could not precisely limit its range.
• The Death World's decaying vitality trait gave the frozen Giant God Cult members an alternative form of life, and they twitched and crawled to their feet.

Shen Hui used Abomination to combine the memories of resurrected cultists and learned the Giant God Cult operated secret bases, including one near a marketplace. He decided to investigate the location alone and considered using the Titan God’s power to infiltrate the cult.

• Shen Hui summoned Abomination, which absorbed the resurrected undead and combined their scattered memories.
• Shen Hui learned the Giant God Cult had many secret bases, that members recognized one another by the Titan God's blessing, and that one base was beneath a marketplace.
• Shen Hui considered releasing the trace of Colossal Creature World power in his Death World to infiltrate the cult, but kept the idea from Chi Yan and the World Association.
• The next day, Shen Hui bought clothes with a hood, put on a face mask, and took a taxi to investigate the marketplace alone.

Shen Hui entered the underground black market beneath Qingbai Market while searching for the Giant God Cult. He found the market’s World Duel Arena, but had not yet located the cult’s base.

• Shen Hui searched Qingbai Market and agreed to pay a guide to take him to its underground market.
• Shen Hui paid for a membership at an inconspicuous tea shop and followed a hidden staircase into the underground market.
• Shen Hui discovered that the crowded market was filled with creators selling contraband and other dangerous goods.
• Shen Hui searched the market for the Giant God Cult but found no sign of its base.
• Shen Hui spotted a guarded passage marked “World Duel Arena.”

Shen Hui entered an underground arena where creators made creatures from their worlds fight, then volunteered to duel for a large prize. He hoped the fight would draw out the hidden Giant God Cult, and the manager promised to arrange his match within a week.

• A masked manager recognized Shen Hui’s strength, apologized for the guards’ treatment, and guided him into the arena.
• The manager explained that the arena’s platform connected to creators’ worlds and that deaths among their creatures could harm the creators.
• Shen Hui watched Orcs defeat a mage civilization, leaving the mage-world creator injured.
• After finding no sign of the Giant God Cult, Shen Hui decided to make them seek him out by entering a duel.
• Shen Hui agreed to fight for a guaranteed one million World Coins, with a hundred million for a win and doubled rewards for continued victories.
• The manager said Shen Hui’s match would be arranged within a week and marked by a red strip of cloth at the market entrance.

Shen Hui learned the rules for the Starry Sky Leaderboard test and joined the other invitees at the World Association. The first round paired him against Sun Jingjing.

• Shen Hui encountered a clown-masked Tarot Cult recruiter at the black market, who fled after another person accused him of being a swindler.
• Shen Hui read the invitation explaining that four hundred contestants would compete for one hundred spots on the Starry Sky Leaderboard.
• Shen Hui learned from Ye Long and the others that a strange world connected to the Zhuge Family had been discovered, and he noticed Qingbai Market’s entrance marker had changed from blue to red.
• Shen Hui arrived at the World Association with Chi Yan and met the other contestants, including Ye Long, Qingxue, Xiao Xiangyan, Zhuge Hongjing, and Bai Fan.
• Fan Hao began the test and announced that four hundred contestants would be randomly paired to compete for two hundred places in the first round.
• The random draw paired Shen Hui with Sun Jingjing.

Shen Hui and Sun Jingjing connected their creation worlds for a test challenge and inspected each other’s civilizations. Sun Jingjing sent a cyberpunk army toward Shen Hui’s world, while Shen Hui’s order mobilized the cities and Deep Ones to meet the invasion.

• Shen Hui drew Sun Jingjing as his opponent, and she challenged him to prove his strength.
• Fan Hao opened a force field that let the challengers connect their creation worlds.
• Shen Hui explored Sun Jingjing’s cyberpunk world, while Sun Jingjing looked over his steam-powered civilization and dismissed it as weak.
• Sun Jingjing ordered an old man in her world to assemble robots, cyborgs, and martial artists and invade Shen Hui’s world.
• Shen Hui ordered the leader of the Esoteric Order of Dagon to alert the cities and prepare the Deep Ones of Innsmouth for the attack.

Sun Jingjing sent mechanical martial artists into Shen Hui's Death World, where they overwhelmed Steam City's defenders. The Esoteric Order of Dagon drank its self-made Potions and transformed into tentacled monsters as the battle escalated.

• Sun Jingjing's fighter jets entered Shen Hui's Death World and ignored Steam City's cannon fire with their energy shields.
• The mechanical martial artists dropped into Steam City and demanded that its defenders surrender.
• The city guards opened fire, but the martial artists dodged the bullets and smashed through them with powered attacks.
• Members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon drank Potions made from Scholar Weike's formula to hear Cthulhu's call.
• The followers' SAN values fell to zero, and tentacles burst through their skin as they transformed into monsters.

Shen Hui triggered the Great Ruin while the mechanical martial artists were defeating the Esoteric Order of Dagon and the hybrid Deep Ones in Steam City. The Great Ruin transformed the city into a desolate, mist-covered place, where the martial artists found a dilapidated building and heard an offer to buy meat.

• The Esoteric Order of Dagon and the hybrid Deep Ones transformed and fought the invading mechanical martial artists, but the martial artists overpowered them and destroyed much of Steam City.
• Sun Jingjing expected victory, while Shen Hui judged the battle only a beginning and triggered the Great Ruin over the Land of New Life.
• The city guards, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and the hybrid Deep Ones fled as the Great Ruin arrived, leaving the martial artists behind.
• The city changed into a rusty, damp, mist-shrouded landscape, and the president warned the martial artists not to pursue their enemies.
• After wandering through the altered surroundings, the martial artists approached a dilapidated building, where a voice asked if they had come to buy meat.

The mechanical martial artists entered a slaughterhouse to hunt the Pig-headed Butcher, but found themselves trapped in a forest filled with monsters and illusions. As fear and confusion took hold, they killed a beautiful girl and felt compelled to carry her remains home.

• The mechanical martial artists struck the Pig-headed Butcher with Thunder Fist and chased him into the slaughterhouse.
• The slaughterhouse became a decaying forest, and the martial arts association president realized someone had spoken without being part of their group.
• A utility pole transformed into a monster, attacked the group, and vanished, leaving the martial artists lost in the forest.
• A featureless figure appeared beside one martial artist and spoke of a wonderful scent before disappearing.
• The martial arts association president ordered the group to keep moving, and they encountered a beautiful young girl.
• The martial artists killed the girl, then felt an irresistible urge to collect her scattered remains and take them home.

Shen Hui’s Death World overwhelmed Sun Jingjing’s mechanical martial artists, transforming them into flesh-covered monsters and forcing Sun Jingjing to sever her connection. Shen Hui won the clash of worlds, and Sun Jingjing suffered an apparent episode as he called for President Shengnan to get her to a hospital.

• The martial artists were driven mad by Tomie’s flesh, fighting over the girls and repeatedly creating more Tomies when they killed them.
• A program in the mechanical martial artists awakened them briefly, but they found themselves surrounded by Tomies and other monsters before succumbing to madness and mutating.
• Sun Jingjing watched her martial artists transform and recognized that Shen Hui’s Death World had fully descended over them.
• Sun Jingjing severed her connection to Shen Hui’s world, conceding the clash, then collapsed in the Real World in terror and pain.
• Shen Hui opened his eyes, saw Sun Jingjing suffering an episode, and called for President Shengnan to get her to the hospital.

Shen Hui won both rounds of the Starry Sky Leaderboard selection challenge, while Ye Long and Xiao Xiangyan also qualified and Qingxue was eliminated. After the challenge ended, Shen Hui sought out Chi Yan to collect his promised resources, planning to refine the Otherworld and the Deep Ones and integrate the Foundation into Death World.

• Sun Jingjing was taken to a psychiatric hospital after her challenge against Shen Hui, and Shen Hui explained that she had refused his warning to surrender.
• The remaining competitors completed the first round, and Ye Long, Qingxue, and Xiao Xiangyan told Shen Hui that they had passed.
• Rumors about Shen Hui spread among the competitors, who feared being matched against him in the final round.
• Shen Hui's opponent surrendered as soon as she saw him, securing his place on the Starry Sky Leaderboard.
• Ye Long and Xiao Xiangyan won their final challenges, while Qingxue lost to Bai Fan; Fan Hao then announced the selection challenge had ended.
• Shen Hui went to find Chi Yan to collect the World Association resources he had been promised.

Shen Hui entered the World Association’s resource vault with Chi Yan to collect resources, where he found tools suited to his plans for the Land of New Life and Death World. He discovered an unusual World Bug Card, but the chapter ended before its effect was revealed.

• Chi Yan warned Shen Hui to avoid another incident like the one with Sun Jingjing and congratulated him on making the Starry Sky Leaderboard.
• Chi Yan brought Shen Hui into the main association’s resource vault, where they met her teacher, the guard who had also taught Fan Hao.
• Shen Hui selected a set of Transcendent-quality basic construction cards and found a Rule Attachment Card that could add details to changes in his worlds’ rules.
• Shen Hui browsed an unlabeled shelf of neglected cards and spotted one named World Bug Card.

Shen Hui found a World Bug Card in the Water District resource vault and decided to use it to create the Backrooms within his Creation World. After collecting a few other resources, he left with Chi Yan and set out for the Water District, eager to continue building the Death World.

• Shen Hui picked up a World Bug Card, and Chi Yan warned him that using one had once caused a Creation World to collapse into a Black Death Star.
• Shen Hui explained that the card could help him create the Backrooms by introducing a bug into his Creation World, and Chi Yan accepted his decision while warning him to be careful.
• Shen Hui found Star Cores and selected three more cards and a potion containing five thousand units of pure World Origin Power.
• Chi Yan stopped Shen Hui from taking more resources and led him out of the vault.
• Shen Hui and Chi Yan said goodbye to Chi Yan's master, rejoined the main Water District group, and began their journey back.

Shen Hui developed Death World’s Otherworld, creating negative-emotion-born monsters and the Hero Unit Pyramid Head. When the Great Ruin arrived on Arkham’s founding day, it unfolded differently than before, transforming the places where people hid.

• Shen Hui used a World Origin Power Potion and a Rule Attachment Card to link the Otherworld to Death World.
• Shen Hui made negative emotions manifest as monsters and created Pyramid Head, an Otherworld-only Hero Unit embodying violence, sin, punishment, and pain.
• Death World gained the trait Otherworld: Domain of Emotions, which gathered negative emotions into monsters and summoned its Hero Unit when they reached a critical point.
• Shen Hui accelerated time, and after five months the Land of New Life repaired the damage from the Great Ruin and otherworldly invasions.
• As Arkham’s 159th founding day approached, residents, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and the Deep Ones prepared for the expected Great Ruin.
• The Great Ruin arrived on schedule, and thick fog and urban-legend creatures appeared as people hiding in the cities felt their surroundings change and fear surge.

Negative emotions in the Land of New Life spawned monsters and a devastating ruin that killed more than seventy thousand people, while Wandering Doom awakened on his own. Shen Hui then created Dagon when the oldest Deep One transformed into the leader of his kind.

• Negative emotions spread through the steam cities, spawning monsters that attacked people and threw the cities into chaos.
• Pyramid Head hunted people as they fled, and Wandering Doom appeared, driving those who saw him into madness and death.
• The ruin ended at dawn, leaving the cities scarred and more than seventy thousand people dead; Shen Hui was pleased that Wandering Doom had awakened without his intervention.
• After several days, Shen Hui turned his attention to creating Dagon and watched the ancient Deep Ones gather in their undersea city.
• The oldest Deep One entered the circle of worshippers, received power, grew larger than the others, and became Dagon.

Shen Hui witnessed Dagon’s evolution into a powerful servant of Cthulhu, then created SCP-173 as the first Foundation containment object. He planned to introduce the anomalous sculpture into the steam civilization and observe its reaction.

• Dagon evolved from a Deep One into a Master-quality Hero with powers tied to Cthulhu and command over the deep sea.
• Shen Hui decided to expand the Death World's worldview by creating the Foundation and the Backrooms World.
• Shen Hui chose SCP-173, The Sculpture - The Original, as the first containment object and formed it from concrete and rebar using World Origin Power.
• SCP-173 gained the ability to move at extreme speed when unobserved and attack with a gravity-distorting force.
• Shen Hui classified SCP-173 as an anomalous containment object and prepared to introduce it into the steam civilization.

Three months after the Great Ruin, Arkham rebuilt and prepared for another year of terror, while its people continued researching steam technology and eldritch power. During construction in the rain, Old Ke's digging machine struck something buried underground, and he ordered an old coworker to inspect it.

• Arkham's plague doctors collected bodies and treated the aftermath of the Great Ruin as the Esoteric Order of Dagon sent followers to face Dagon's terror for power.
• The next Great Ruin killed around twenty thousand people, and the Wandering Doom appeared again.
• After the new year, three days of rain shrouded Arkham as construction continued at a planned factory site.
• Old Ke's excavator struck something hard underground, and he told the old man tending the fire to climb into the pit and secure it with a hook.

At a construction site, a statue killed workers by moving whenever no one was looking, and investigators recognized it as a new urban legend. Shen Hui watched as they discovered its rule and prepared to intervene to help establish the Foundation to contain it.

• An old man and Old Ke excavated a strange statue, and it vanished before reappearing behind the old man and breaking his neck.
• The statue killed Old Ke when he tried to flee, then killed three more people at the construction site.
• City guards, plague doctors, and members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon investigated the statue but found nothing unusual while watching it.
• When everyone looked away from the statue, it moved beside a corpse and killed six people by breaking their necks.
• A member of the Esoteric Order of Dagon deduced that the statue attacked only when no one was looking, and Shen Hui decided to help create the Foundation to contain it.

Shen Hui used his Arkham avatar to establish the SCP Foundation and oversee the containment of SCP-173 in Steam City. He then crushed a World Bug Card and injected reverse Power of Rules into the Death World, locating the loophole it created.

• Arkham's council approved Shen Hui's proposal to turn the Strange Tale Anomaly Investigation Bureau into the SCP Foundation, tasked with containing, controlling, studying, and using anomalies.
• The SCP Foundation took over the construction site and, after a week and more than ten deaths, identified SCP-173's rules and contained the statue.
• Shen Hui noted that the Death World's people wanted to use anomalies against eldritch strange tales and the Great Ruin, then returned his attention to building the world.
• Shen Hui crushed the World Bug Card and injected its reverse Power of Rules into the Death World, disrupting its rules and creating a loophole that he pinpointed.