The cheering lasted almost a full minute.
Lin Xia barely heard any of it.
Her eyes remained fixed on the black screen.
UPDATING MODEL...
Then the message disappeared.
The ordinary school interface returned.
MATCH COMPLETE.
WINNER: LIN XIA.
Nothing else.
No warning.
No punishment.
No explanation.
But Lin Xia knew what she had seen.
The system had studied her.
"Lin Xia."
She turned.
Yue Ning was standing beside her.
"You okay?"
Lin Xia looked at the dead screen.
"I'm not sure."
Mei Chen came rushing over.
"You're officially terrifying."
Lin Xia blinked.
"What?"
"You just defeated Bai Shuying without cheating."
Mei Chen pointed dramatically toward the board.
"Do you know how many people here thought you were finished?"
Lin Xia almost smiled.
"I thought I was finished too."
Yue Ning frowned.
"No, you didn't."
Lin Xia looked at her.
Yue Ning crossed her arms.
"You always do that."
"Do what?"
"Act like you don't know what you're doing when you've already calculated three steps ahead."
Mei Chen nodded.
"She's right."
Lin Xia sighed.
"Maybe I'm getting better."
Behind them, Bai Shuying was packing her things.
She didn't look angry.
She didn't look embarrassed.
She looked thoughtful.
Lin Xia walked toward her.
"You knew the system was watching."
Bai Shuying stopped.
"I suspected."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Would you have believed me?"
Lin Xia didn't answer.
Bai Shuying smiled faintly.
"Exactly."
She picked up the small cheating device.
"You were right about one thing."
"What?"
"The device wasn't my greatest advantage."
Lin Xia looked at it.
"What was?"
Bai Shuying glanced toward the students still leaving the auditorium.
"Information."
THE SCHOOL CHANGES
The four girls left the auditorium together.
Almost immediately, they noticed something different.
Students were looking at them.
Not the usual curious looks.
Something else.
Respect.
Fear.
Suspicion.
A few students stepped aside when they approached.
Others whispered.
"That's them."
"The three from outside."
"Lin Xia beat Bai Shuying."
"Without cheating."
"Did you see the ending?"
"She trapped her."
Mei Chen grinned.
"I think we're famous."
Yue Ning shook her head.
"No."
She looked around.
"We're dangerous now."
Mei Chen's smile faded.
She understood.
Before today, they had been outsiders.
Interesting outsiders.
Now they had defeated someone from the upper ranks.
That changed everything.
THE RANKING
The girls reached the central hall.
A massive screen displayed the current rankings.
Names shifted.
Numbers changed.
Then—
LIN XIA — RANK 17
YUE NING — RANK 18
MEI CHEN — RANK 19
Bai Shuying remained at:
RANK 3
Mei Chen stared.
"Wait."
She pointed at the screen.
"We're ranked?"
Yue Ning nodded.
"We weren't before."
Lin Xia frowned.
"Why now?"
Bai Shuying answered.
"Because you won."
"But it was an exhibition match."
"Not anymore."
The ranking screen flickered.
A new message appeared.
SPECIAL MATCH RESULTS HAVE BEEN INTEGRATED INTO PLAYER RANKINGS.
Mei Chen groaned.
"Wonderful."
Then another message appeared.
TEAM CLASSIFICATION: TEMPORARY
Yue Ning stared.
"Team?"
The three girls exchanged glances.
They had never registered themselves as a team.
A second line appeared.
UNIT NAME: UNASSIGNED
Then:
COOPERATIVE PATTERN DETECTED.
Lin Xia's expression darkened.
"It's studying how we work together."
THE MESSAGE
They returned to their classroom.
For once, nobody followed them.
Lin Xia placed Bai Shuying's cheating device on the desk.
Yue Ning examined it.
"It's not connected to the school network."
"Can you tell what it does?"
"Not completely."
Mei Chen leaned over.
"Can you break it?"
Yue Ning looked offended.
"Why does everyone assume I can break everything?"
"Because you're the smart one."
"You're also smart."
"I'm emotionally smart."
Lin Xia sighed.
"Both of you stop."
Yue Ning turned the device over.
There was a tiny symbol engraved underneath.
Not XO.
Something different.
A circle.
With a vertical line through the center.
She stared at it.
"I've seen this before."
Lin Xia looked over.
"Where?"
"The Archives."
Silence.
Mei Chen's expression changed.
"The Archives?"
Yue Ning nodded.
"There was a file with this symbol."
"Which file?"
"I don't remember."
"You don't remember?"
"No."
She looked frustrated.
"I remember seeing the symbol, but the file itself..."
She stopped.
"Someone deleted it."
Lin Xia stared at the device.
"Can we access the Archives again?"
Yue Ning shook her head.
"Not from here."
"Then where?"
The classroom lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The computer on the teacher's desk switched on.
Nobody touched it.
A black screen appeared.
Then white text.
YOU WANT THE ARCHIVE?
The girls froze.
Mei Chen whispered,
"No."
Another line appeared.
THEN COME FIND ME.
Lin Xia stepped toward the computer.
"Who are you?"
The screen remained blank.
Then:
YOU ALREADY KNOW.
The screen went black.
THE CORRIDOR
The girls rushed into the hallway.
Nothing.
Students continued walking.
Teachers continued teaching.
Nobody appeared to have noticed anything.
Lin Xia looked toward the end of the corridor.
A classroom door was open.
Room 318.
It had never been open before.
Yue Ning grabbed Lin Xia's arm.
"Don't."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because this is exactly what it wants."
Mei Chen stared at the open doorway.
"She's right."
Lin Xia hesitated.
The smartest decision would be to walk away.
The safest decision would be to report it.
But they had learned something important about XO Project.
Whenever the game wanted them somewhere...
it didn't always force them.
Sometimes it simply gave them a reason to go.
Lin Xia walked toward Room 318.
Yue Ning followed.
Mei Chen sighed.
"Of course we're doing this."
ROOM 318
The classroom was empty.
Old desks.
Dusty windows.
A broken clock.
Nothing unusual.
Then Mei Chen noticed the wall.
There were hundreds of scratches.
Names.
Numbers.
Dates.
Some had been crossed out.
Others had been circled.
Yue Ning moved closer.
"These are player numbers."
Lin Xia looked at the wall.
Some were extremely old.
PLAYER 004
PLAYER 017
PLAYER 031
PLAYER 089
Then she saw something.
Three numbers written together.
217
218
219
Mei Chen went quiet.
"Our numbers?"
Yue Ning shook her head.
"No."
She pointed beneath them.
A date was written.
TWELVE YEARS AGO.
Lin Xia's stomach dropped.
"We weren't the first three."
A sound came from behind them.
Click.
The door closed.
All three girls turned.
Nobody was there.
Then the classroom projector activated.
A video began playing.
Three girls appeared on the screen.
University students.
Sitting around a computer.
Working on a game.
Lin Xia stopped breathing.
The room was silent.
The girl in the middle looked directly into the camera.
And said:
"If you're watching this..."
The footage distorted.
"...then XO Project has found another group."
The screen flickered.
Her face disappeared.
A final message appeared.
DO NOT LET IT LEARN ALL THREE OF YOU.
The video ended.
Mei Chen whispered,
"What does that mean?"
Yue Ning stared at the dead projector.
"I don't know."
Lin Xia looked at the three empty chairs beneath the screen.
Three girls.
Just like them.
Twelve years earlier.
Then the computer screen turned on again.
One sentence appeared.
THE PREVIOUS TEAM FAILED.
Another.
YOU ARE DOING BETTER.
And finally—
THAT MAKES YOU MORE USEFUL.
Lin Xia's blood ran cold.
Because this time...
the message wasn't being displayed to all three of them.
It appeared only on her screen.
Yue Ning and Mei Chen saw nothing.
Lin Xia slowly stepped backward.
She said nothing.
The screen went black.
And somewhere deep inside XO Project...
the system added a new line to its calculations.
LIN XIA — PRIMARY VARIABLE.
OBSERVATION LEVEL: INCREASED.
DO NOT ALLOW SUBJECT TO EXIT.