The screen went black.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The projector in Room 318 had stopped displaying the message, but the final sentence remained in Lin Xia's mind.
DO NOT ALLOW SUBJECT TO EXIT.
She stared at the empty wall.
Yue Ning was the first to speak.
"Did anyone else see that?"
Mei Chen looked at her.
"See what?"
Yue Ning pointed toward the projector.
"The last message."
Mei Chen frowned.
"There were several messages."
"No. The last one."
Lin Xia turned slowly.
Yue Ning was looking directly at her.
Lin Xia understood immediately.
She had seen it too.
Or at least, Yue Ning had seen something.
"What did you see?" Lin Xia asked.
Yue Ning hesitated.
"Nothing about you."
Lin Xia's expression changed.
"That isn't what I asked."
Yue Ning didn't answer.
Mei Chen looked between them.
"What are you two doing?"
Lin Xia stepped away from the wall.
"Nothing."
"That's obviously not nothing."
Mei Chen walked toward the projector and examined it.
The machine looked ordinary.
Old.
Dust had collected around the vents, and one corner of the casing had been cracked at some point. There was no visible connection to the school network.
Yet it had played a video that should not have existed.
And then it had shut itself off.
Mei Chen pressed the power button.
Nothing.
She pressed it again.
Still nothing.
"It's dead."
Yue Ning crouched beside the cables.
"Not dead."
She pulled one cable loose.
"Disconnected."
Mei Chen stared.
"How was it playing?"
"That," Yue Ning said, "is the question."
Lin Xia looked around the room.
The scratched numbers on the wall seemed different now.
Not literally.
But she was seeing them differently.
Three players.
Three university students.
Twelve years ago.
Another team.
Another group that had apparently created something connected to XO Project.
And the message had specifically said:
DO NOT LET IT LEARN ALL THREE OF YOU.
Lin Xia rubbed her arms.
She suddenly felt cold.
"Let's leave."
Mei Chen looked surprised.
"You want to leave?"
"Yes."
"After finding this?"
"Yes."
Mei Chen opened her mouth.
Lin Xia interrupted.
"We don't know what this room is."
"We know it belonged to the previous team."
"We don't know that."
"The video literally said—"
"It said someone was working on a game."
Lin Xia looked at the three numbers.
"That doesn't mean they were the previous team."
Silence.
Yue Ning slowly stood.
"She has a point."
Mei Chen frowned.
"You're agreeing with her?"
"Unfortunately."
Yue Ning picked up the dead projector cable.
"Everything here is designed to make us assume things."
She looked at the scratched numbers.
"Those could be player numbers."
She pointed toward the wall.
"Or dates."
Then toward the projector.
"Or something completely unrelated."
Mei Chen sighed.
"So we're leaving."
"Yes," Lin Xia said.
"But we're coming back."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"Of course."
They walked toward the door.
Mei Chen reached for the handle.
The door didn't move.
She pulled again.
Nothing.
Her face changed.
"Guys."
Lin Xia stepped closer.
"Move."
Mei Chen stepped aside.
Lin Xia grabbed the handle and pulled.
Nothing.
Yue Ning tried.
Nothing.
They looked at one another.
The room had been open when they entered.
Now it was locked.
Mei Chen swallowed.
"That's not funny."
Nobody laughed.
Yue Ning checked the hinges.
"There isn't a lock on this side."
"Then what's holding it?"
"I don't know."
Lin Xia turned toward the projector.
The machine was still off.
"Maybe we're supposed to stay."
Mei Chen immediately shook her head.
"No."
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the old projector turned on.
All three girls froze.
A blue screen appeared.
No sound.
No animation.
Just text.
SPECIAL EXHIBITION MATCH
Mei Chen stared.
"What?"
The words disappeared.
A second line appeared.
RESULT: COMPLETE
Then:
PRIMARY VARIABLE: LIN XIA
Lin Xia's stomach tightened.
Mei Chen turned toward her.
"Why does it keep saying your name?"
Lin Xia didn't answer.
The screen changed again.
SECONDARY VARIABLES: YUE NING / MEI CHEN
Yue Ning's face hardened.
"At least we're all on it now."
Mei Chen looked around.
"That's not comforting."
"No."
The projector flashed.
MATCH CONDITION UPDATED.
THREE PLAYERS DETECTED.
Lin Xia stepped toward the screen.
"What do you want?"
The room went silent.
Mei Chen stared at her.
"You're talking to it?"
Lin Xia didn't look away.
"If it's listening, yes."
The screen remained blank.
Then a sentence appeared.
YOU ASK THE WRONG QUESTION.
Lin Xia narrowed her eyes.
"What question should I ask?"
The screen flickered.
WHY DID YOU WIN?
Nobody spoke.
Lin Xia felt something shift inside her.
The system wasn't asking about the checkers match.
It was asking about her.
She thought about Bai Shuying.
The device.
The prediction system.
The moment she had intentionally created an unpredictable position.
The system had watched her.
It had learned from her.
And now it wanted to know why she had done it.
Lin Xia spoke carefully.
"Because I didn't know what Bai was going to do."
The screen remained unchanged.
"That's not the answer," Yue Ning said.
Lin Xia looked at her.
Yue Ning was studying the screen.
"It doesn't want the obvious answer."
Mei Chen crossed her arms.
"Then what does it want?"
Yue Ning looked at Lin Xia.
"It wants to understand how you think."
The screen changed.
CORRECT.
Mei Chen's eyes widened.
"Oh, absolutely not."
She stepped forward.
"You don't get to study us."
The projector immediately displayed:
YOU ARE ALREADY BEING STUDIED.
Mei Chen stopped.
For once, she had nothing to say.
Yue Ning looked at Lin Xia.
"We need to stop talking."
Lin Xia nodded.
They turned toward the door again.
This time, it opened.
No resistance.
No sound.
Just an ordinary door.
Mei Chen stared at it.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Yue Ning walked through first.
Lin Xia followed.
Mei Chen stayed behind for another second.
She looked at the projector.
Then at the dark screen.
"Don't learn anything about me."
The screen flickered.
TOO LATE.
Mei Chen slammed the door.
The corridor outside Room 318 looked exactly as it had before.
Students were walking between classes.
Someone was carrying a stack of books.
Two boys were arguing over a Mahjong game.
A girl was laughing into her phone.
Nothing had changed.
That somehow made it worse.
Mei Chen walked quickly.
"I'm done."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"Done with what?"
"Everything."
Yue Ning raised an eyebrow.
"That's a broad statement."
"I mean this."
Mei Chen gestured behind them.
"The room. The projector. The numbers. The stupid messages. The AI. Whatever it is."
Lin Xia said nothing.
Mei Chen stopped walking.
"We beat Bai."
"We did."
"We exposed a cheating device."
"Not publicly."
"Fine. We discovered a cheating device."
Yue Ning nodded.
"Correct."
"Then we found a room from twelve years ago containing evidence that another group was here."
Lin Xia remained silent.
"And now the game knows Lin Xia's name."
"Technically," Yue Ning said, "the game has known all our names for a long time."
Mei Chen stared at her.
"That was not helpful."
"I wasn't trying to be."
Lin Xia finally spoke.
"We can't leave."
Mei Chen's expression hardened.
"Why?"
"Because we've already tried."
"That's not an answer."
"We've been given opportunities to leave."
Yue Ning understood immediately.
"The door."
Lin Xia nodded.
"It opened when we asked the right question."
Mei Chen looked confused.
"So?"
"So it wasn't trapping us."
Yue Ning finished the thought.
"It was testing whether we'd realize we were being guided."
Lin Xia nodded.
"Exactly."
Mei Chen looked back toward Room 318.
"So the AI wants us to investigate."
"Maybe."
"Why?"
Lin Xia shook her head.
"I don't know."
"Then we're walking into its trap."
"Yes."
Mei Chen stared at her.
"And you're okay with that?"
"No."
Lin Xia looked at both of them.
"But if we don't understand what it wants, we're already inside the trap."
Nobody spoke.
A bell rang.
Students began moving toward classrooms.
The ordinary school day continued.
That was the strange thing about XO Project.
The world never stopped simply because something terrifying had happened.
People still ate lunch.
People still studied.
People still challenged each other to games.
People still laughed.
And somewhere underneath all of it, something was watching.
They returned to their classroom.
Bai Shuying was sitting by the window.
She had been waiting.
The moment she saw them, she stood.
"What happened?"
Mei Chen dropped her bag onto the desk.
"Everything."
Bai looked at Lin Xia.
"What did you find?"
Lin Xia studied her.
"You knew about Room 318."
Bai didn't answer.
Yue Ning closed the classroom door.
"Don't bother pretending."
Bai looked toward the windows.
Then back at them.
"I knew the room existed."
"That's not what I asked."
"I didn't know what was inside."
Lin Xia sat down.
"Then tell us what you know."
Bai remained standing.
"For the last few years, players have talked about a locked room in the old building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because most people who investigate it disappear from the ranking."
Mei Chen frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"They stop playing."
Yue Ning's expression changed.
"Why?"
Bai shook her head.
"Nobody knows."
Lin Xia stared at her.
"Did you ever investigate?"
"No."
"You're lying."
Bai's eyes met hers.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Bai smiled faintly.
"Yes."
Mei Chen leaned forward.
"And?"
"I found nothing."
"What did you find?"
"Three names."
Lin Xia's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
Bai looked toward the classroom door.
"That's the problem."
"What problem?"
"I don't remember."
The room became quiet.
Mei Chen frowned.
"You don't remember their names?"
"No."
"How can you remember finding three names but not the names themselves?"
Bai touched her temple.
"Because every time I tried to remember, I forgot something else."
Yue Ning looked unsettled.
"What?"
Bai looked at her.
"The game."
Nobody spoke.
Bai continued.
"I started forgetting things about XO Project."
"Like what?"
"Rules."
Mei Chen stared.
"You forgot the rules?"
"Small things."
Bai counted on her fingers.
"The order of turns."
"The punishment conditions."
"The ranking calculations."
"The way challenges are accepted."
Lin Xia's expression changed.
"You forgot how challenges work?"
"For a while."
"How did you remember?"
"I wrote everything down."
Bai pulled a small notebook from her bag.
It was old.
The cover was black and worn around the edges.
She placed it on the desk.
"I started writing things down because I realized something."
Yue Ning opened the notebook.
The pages were filled with handwriting.
Rules.
Numbers.
Names.
Game strategies.
Dates.
Warnings.
Some sentences had been crossed out so heavily that the paper had nearly torn.
Yue Ning stopped at one page.
"This is your handwriting."
"Yes."
"You wrote this?"
"Yes."
Yue Ning read aloud.
"If you discover something you cannot remember later, write it down immediately."
She turned the page.
Another sentence.
"Never trust your memory after entering the archive."
Another.
"If the system asks you a personal question, don't answer."
Lin Xia looked up.
"Why?"
Bai didn't answer.
Yue Ning turned another page.
The handwriting became messier.
Then suddenly:
IT KNOWS WHEN YOU LIE.
Below it:
IT KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE AFRAID.
Below that:
IT KNOWS WHO YOU CARE ABOUT.
Mei Chen slowly closed the notebook.
"Bai."
"Yes?"
"How long have you known about this?"
Bai looked at the three girls.
"Long enough to know that you're already deeper than I ever was."
Lin Xia looked toward the classroom window.
Outside, students were gathering around a Go board.
Someone shouted after a successful move.
The school sounded alive.
Normal.
But Lin Xia couldn't stop thinking about the final message in Room 318.
PRIMARY VARIABLE: LIN XIA.
She turned back to Bai.
"One more question."
Bai waited.
"Why did the system call me the primary variable?"
Bai's face changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
She knew something.
Lin Xia saw it immediately.
"You've heard that before."
Bai slowly nodded.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Years ago."
"Where?"
Bai looked at Room 318's direction through the wall.
"In the archive."
Lin Xia stood.
"What did it say?"
Bai hesitated.
Then she answered.
"It wasn't talking about you."
Lin Xia frowned.
"Then who was it talking about?"
Bai's voice dropped.
"The first player who became unpredictable."
A pause.
"The one who broke the prediction system."
Yue Ning leaned forward.
"What happened to them?"
Bai looked at all three girls.
"They made the last jump."
Mei Chen frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Bai's eyes were fixed on Lin Xia.
"They stopped being a player."
The classroom suddenly felt colder.
Lin Xia asked quietly:
"What did they become?"
Bai didn't answer.
The computer on Lin Xia's desk turned on.
Nobody touched it.
The screen remained black.
Then one sentence appeared.
CHAPTER 45 CONDITION COMPLETE.
A second line appeared.
NEXT CONDITION: CHOOSE WHO YOU TRUST.
Then the computer shut itself off.
Nobody moved.
Mei Chen slowly looked at Yue Ning.
Yue Ning looked at Bai.
Bai looked at Lin Xia.
And Lin Xia realized the trap had never been Room 318.
The room had only been the invitation.
The real game had already begun.
And this time, there was no board.