Game-level designer Shen Ye dies in the corridor of the "Eternal Night Apartment," awakening the "Eye of Rules" just before his death. It lets him see hidden rules and loopholes in those rules, but at the cost of his mental stability. Reborn the day before entering the corridor, he decides to use his game-design mindset to break the deadly trap into bugs.
Returning to the Eternal Night Apartment, Shen Ye uses the Eye of Rules to spot a loophole in the "Mirror Rule" and save forensic doctor Lin Wu. Lin Wu's "Trace Retrospection" lets her see the traces of past events left on objects, and the two become a dual-core team of "rules and traces." As the apartment's floors shift every night and the administrator's inspections draw nearer, Shen Ye discovers that the corridor has a live-streaming System: viewers in the real world can trade gifts for hints, while contractees' performances affect their nations' fortune scores. This brings in a clash of national fortunes and real-time audience interaction.
After clearing the apartment, they enter the "Hunger Amusement Park," where the difficulty rises and the team faces a crisis of division. Shen Ye breaks with the selfish merchant Zhao Tiancheng. In the third level, the "Silent Library," Shen Ye uncovers the corridor's origins in a forbidden book: each space corresponds to a collective human fear, and "the bearer of the Eye of Rules is the key to the corridor." The fourth level, the "Mirror Hospital," reveals the truth about his previous life: Shen Ye died in the Seventh Corridor, and a fragment of the corridor's core fused with his soul as he died. The "other Shen Ye" in the mirror wants to replace him. The final level, the "Blood-Red Train," leads straight to the corridor's core. The mastermind is a former Guardian of Rules, who wants to rewrite reality and become a god. Shen Ye rewrites the core rules in reverse, changing them from "fear-driven" to "hope-driven" and shutting down the deadly corridors. The cost is that the Eye of Rules disappears. He becomes the first Guardian of Rules, the corridor turns into a controllable training ground, and all the contractees return home.
