On a late night of overtime, Lin Jue is pulled into the Ark game and faces the threat of death from the start in the D-rank instance Silent Hospital. Just as despair sets in, Gu Chen, a player on his thirteenth clear, becomes his guide and saves him at the price of Lin Jue's "absolute obedience." Fleeing from the mutant creatures hunting them, they discover that the instance revolves around a twisted rule of time: only by resolving the clock keeper's obsession can they open the exit.
Facing the terrifying BOSS the clock keeper has become, Gu Chen uses himself as bait, drawing out the awakened "Weaving" ability within Lin Jue. Lin Jue glimpses the threads of causality and rewrites the clock keeper's obsession with his daughter, along with the truth of her death, allowing the BOSS to vanish in release. But just as they clear the instance, Gu Chen slips Lin Jue a silver coin engraved with the character "Gu," hinting that the Ark is not a game but a refuge for souls. He leaves Lin Jue with a riddle: "I'll tell you everything next time we meet."
Theme: Within predetermined rules of despair, only by using reason as a blade to cut through the truth and bonds as threads to weave causality anew can one anchor the soul's true shore amid the illusion of countless cycles.
