This video did nothing to comfort Xu Zhiyi; instead, it stirred an even greater unease within her.
The last time Lin Yan had appeared in such a evasive manner was last year, when a member of their lab group had mishandled the equipment, triggering a small explosion.
It hadn't been that severe—just glass shards grazing Lin Yan's forehead, leaving a few scars of varying depth. So that evening, he'd uncharacteristically worn a gray beanie, holding the camera as low as possible. At a glance, Xu Zhiyi could only see his chest wrapped in a black sweater.
With the air conditioning set to over twenty degrees, Lin Yan said nonchalantly, "Zhizhi, it's been getting colder lately. Remember to keep warm."
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
Sometimes, when she didn't lose her temper, her brother really treated her like a fool to be placated.
They attended the same university, though Lin Yan was a first-year master's student at the main campus in the suburbs, while she was a junior in the city—an hour or two apart.
Unmoved by Lin Yan's explanation, Xu Zhiyi's expression turned fierce. Clutching her phone, she was ready to charge over to the suburbs in the dead of night before he finally smiled and took off the hat.
The moment she saw his condition, tears welled up in Xu Zhiyi's eyes. She pressed her lips together, her face growing angrier as she listened to him explain what had happened, looking as if she were about to fight the culprit to the death.
Before she could speak, Lin Yan suddenly lowered his eyes, looking deeply dejected. "Zhizhi… with me like this now, do you think I look ugly?"
Xu Zhiyi choked on her words.
Looking back later, there had clearly been a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth when he said that, but at the time, she'd been genuinely fooled. She'd hurriedly comforted him with several reassurances—that her brother had always been the best-looking, that even with a face full of scars, even without a face at all, there was no other man on earth this handsome.
Her words were, of course, very effective. Lin Yan's long fingers tapped against the screen, as if patting her head. His eyelids half-lowered, his gaze seeming somewhat dim, though the corners of his lips curved gently. "Will you always think that way?"
Xu Zhiyi nodded very seriously in agreement.
Sure enough, Lin Yan smiled even more tenderly. His peach-blossom eyes curved with an almost hypnotic charm, warm and handsome like a spring breeze brushing past. Xu Zhiyi was momentarily swayed by that smile and curved her own lips in return.
But soon, she quickly found her resolve again and sternly criticized his evasive behavior. She warned him that from now on, he was never to hide anything from her—especially anything related to his health.
Lin Yan smiled brightly, nodding repeatedly at Officer Xiao Zhi in agreement.
The next day, when Xu Zhiyi arrived at his university gate carrying ointment, Lin Yan even produced a written self-criticism, bending low so she could inspect his forehead as she pleased. His attitude could be described as genuinely sincere.
Xu Zhiyi gave a cold snort, running her fingers over his nearly healed scars, and only then did her mood improve.
He'd promised so earnestly back then—that he would never hide anything from her again.
And now he was disappearing for no reason, being evasive, and when asked, only fobbing her off with strange excuses.
—No, wait!
Xu Zhiyi suddenly sat up.
These past days, it wasn't just Lin Yan who had been acting out of character—it was her too!
Before, even when Lin Yan had just a small scratch on his forehead, she'd pester him with questions for ages. Now, with him disappearing without any reason for so long, she'd been letting it slide, not caring or digging into the reason behind it.
That was simply impossible!
A sudden clarity struck Xu Zhiyi, and she began to carefully think through all the anomalies of the past month.
But her thoughts had only just begun to take root for a few seconds when her body started showing signs of rejection—her heart pounded too fast, her fingertips went numb, as if all the ailments she hadn't suffered from in the past month were now erupting at once, a hundred times more agonizing.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead. Xu Zhiyi took a deep breath and deftly grabbed a tissue to wipe it away.
This level of Backlash was nowhere near the terror Lin Yan's disappearance had brought her.
Though she had no idea where Lin Yan had been taken, the sudden violent reaction of her body only confirmed that her line of thinking was completely correct.
As she struggled to steady her breathing, the city's deceptively bright night began to seal itself off from this rented room. Outside the window, the darkness turned solid and stagnant. Trapped in the cramped shadows, no one could hold out for long. The shadows of every object in the room began to sway, twist, and warp, as if something was about to crawl out and grab her.
Yet Xu Zhiyi's gaze remained fixed on the photo frame on the coffee table.
It used to hold a picture of her and Lin Yan together—taken in front of their high school gate after the college entrance exam that year. Now only she stood beside the gate, her body tilted awkwardly to one side.
Her brother should have been standing right next to her.
The more Xu Zhiyi tried to recall Lin Yan's face, the louder the noise in her ears grew. Gradually, the sound became clear, coaxing her—if she would just stop thinking, all this torment would end.
"…"
Her head was throbbing painfully, and her mood was foul. She muttered "get lost" several times in her heart, and the voice struggled for a moment before sulkily falling silent.
The building was about to collapse.
Xu Zhiyi panted softly, completely indifferent to the changes around her. She only stared at the single-person photo on the table. To her left, a blurry black shadow was struggling to take human form… that was where Lin Yan had once stood.
"Brother…" she called out softly.
The crumbling house paused for a second, then gave up and stopped. All the discomfort in Xu Zhiyi's body vanished in an instant.
In the silence, a mechanical electronic voice began reporting errors in a flat tone.
Xu Zhiyi listened at first, but was soon dizzy from the obscure terminology, only managing to remember a few lines.
[We apologize, the Memory Cleansing Measure currently in operation cannot be continued. Reason: It violates rewards already redeemed by other users.]
[…]
[Attempting alternative methods…]
[Attempt failed.]
[…]
[The target individual's memories cannot be altered.]
Though she only caught these fragments, she clearly understood what the voice overhead meant—it wanted to modify her memories, to make her forget her brother.
Absolutely absurd!
Xu Zhiyi stopped paying attention to the voice circling above her head, keeping her eyes wide and fixed on the photo, her face nearly buried in it.
Perhaps related to the mechanical voice's frantic error reports, her brother had now grown half a face.
[Respected Extra-system User Xu Zhiyi, you are not on our list of game participants, but we are willing to make an exception and add a spot for you.]
Xu Zhiyi didn't even look up.
[Given your extremely low survival rate in the game, we strongly recommend you choose the second option—cooperate with us and erase your memories of other players. This is entirely beneficial to you with no downsides…]
"Other players?" Xu Zhiyi finally reacted, lifting her face and scanning the ceiling urgently. "What do you mean? Is my brother in this so-called game of yours? Is he okay?"
【I'm sorry, but before you confirm your entry into the game, I cannot disclose information about other players. Are you willing to participate in this round of the game?】
That was basically an indirect confirmation.
Xu Zhiyi couldn't locate the source of the mechanical voice. She lowered her head in frustration, her fingertips brushing against the shoulders of the two figures pressed together in the photo, and choked out, "I just want to see my brother. If he's in your game… then I'll participate…"
The mechanical voice fell silent for a moment.
【Very well. Then let me confirm with you: once you enter the game, your life and death will be entirely determined by the Instance rules within. And by clearing the game, you will have the opportunity to obtain everything you desire…】
"I'll participate, participate, participate, participate!" Xu Zhiyi blurted out in rapid succession at the air, not forgetting to remind it, "I want my brother, I only want my brother. You have to send me to wherever my brother is…"
【…】
"Lin Yan, 23 years old, ID number XXXXXXXX."
Afraid that the thing didn't know who her brother was, Xu Zhiyi thoughtfully filled in the full information, and finally, hesitantly, whispered to it, "Please, please."
Whether it worked or not was unknown, but in the mechanical voice's silence, Xu Zhiyi keenly caught a hint of helplessness. When the thing above her head spoke again, its voice remained calm, and even carried a blessing for her at the end.
【Respected player Xu Zhiyi, welcome to this round of the game—your Player Code is 10593910. May you enjoy your time in the game.】
【Game loading…】
【Game loaded successfully.】
The things around her were dissolving. Xu Zhiyi's hand, gripping the photo frame so hard it had turned white, was forced to grasp at empty air, and her lowered head slowly lifted.
In front of her appeared a news broadcast screen—a residential building fire in a neighborhood, the blaze lasting five hours…
The lights were bright, and there was a rustling of movement and murmurs around her.
Xu Zhiyi blinked in bewilderment.
She was now sitting in the center of a classroom.
A crowd gathered at the doorway was watching her from a distance, their gazes warm and friendly, identical smiles plastered on their faces.
They all wore a unified middle school uniform, zippers neatly pulled up to their collarbones, clothes clean, heights varying, their appearances like middle school students.
Xu Zhiyi's gaze swept over the tallest few, confirmed that Lin Yan wasn't among them, and quickly looked away.
The place she was in was the most ordinary classroom—a blackboard taking up half the wall, desks and chairs arranged not quite neatly… If one ignored the gloomy, pitch-dark sky outside the window, it seemed like middle school students would soon be filing in for class.
On the blackboard were a few lines written in white chalk, neat standard handwritten regular script.
【Huamei Middle School, Examination Room 1】
【22:00—22:30 English Listening Test】
【Honest examination, cheating strictly prohibited】
While Xu Zhiyi was still scanning the classroom environment, the mechanical voice of unknown origin sounded again, clear and distinct.
【As you are a new player, allow me to introduce the following basic Survival Rules:】
【One: Play the role you've been assigned in the Instance well.】
[2. Directly or indirectly killing ghosts, exploring Instances, and other such actions will earn you Points, which are directly tied to the rewards you receive when the Instance concludes;]
[3. There is one and only one way to leave an Instance: "complete the prompt tasks within the specified survival period." Any abnormal behavior aimed at avoiding tasks will be seen by us. Please do not play passively;]
[4. The Instance is a virtual world. Players who project real-world emotions into the Instance world do so at their own risk.]
The broadcast finished speaking and went silent, plunging the classroom back into stillness. Only the ticking of the clock remained, its hands just crossing 9:55 PM.
Five minutes remained until the exam began.
Time was short. Xu Zhiyi sat in the classroom, unmoving, still rapidly processing the information she had obtained. Out of the corner of her eye, she quietly glanced at the group of students still blocking the doorway.
They wore broad, friendly smiles on their faces, and their eyes were clear and bright.
This scene, placed in any school brochure, would be an exemplary image that put parents at ease. Yet appearing on such a dark, windy night, it only heightened the sense of dread.
"…"
She had never seen students who smiled so cheerfully before a nighttime exam.
It was too inhuman. Although Xu Zhiyi still had only a vague understanding of what she was supposed to do here, her instincts told her not to get too close to them.
As she digested the rules she had heard from the broadcast, she accidentally made eye contact with one of the students. She froze for a moment, but the other person projected an unusually tolerant and encouraging gaze, as if telling her not to be nervous about the exam.
Xu Zhiyi hastily turned her face away, shifting her focus to the desk cubby, instinctively searching for some kind of defensive tool.
It was only then that she noticed the cubby contained a set of matching exam supplies, along with a seat information slip bearing her name, even her student ID number printed in full.
Out of caution, she looked inside a couple more times and unexpectedly pulled out a piece of white paper folded to the size of an eyeglass lens. When unfolded, it read "Xu Zhiyi's Daily Schedule" in neat printed type, yet when her fingertip brushed across it, dark ink marks smeared.
At the very bottom of the paper was a string of letters.
ACBCC…
Ten options in total.
Xu Zhiyi silently recited them in her mind. As she was zoning out, trying to memorize them a few more times, her gaze landed on the slogan "Honest Examination." In an instant, the life-saving cheat sheet in her hand turned into a death warrant.
At this point, there was still one minute until the exam.
And now she couldn't get out.
At the classroom door, those middle school students with their friendly smiles were filing in one by one, quietly finding their seats, leaving no gap for her to slip through.
Throwing it out the window wasn't realistic either—it still had the schedule on it, and she had only skimmed it. If she couldn't get it back… worse, if someone else picked it up first, even just a torn fragment of the paper, it could be traced back to her.
Xu Zhiyi didn't hesitate any longer. She tore off the line with the letters and tucked it into the sleeve of her right cotton-padded jacket, then hid the remaining large portion of the paper in her left sleeve.
Good thing it was winter.
After doing this, she let out a deep breath and took out the exam supplies prepared in the room to check them, also as a way to distract herself.
Two pens, one black and one red. Both had plastic shells, yet they emanated an incongruous smell of incense ash.
Xu Zhiyi twirled a pen between her fingers.
There was a period when Lin Yan frequently visited the various temples around the lakes and mountains, and when he came home, he carried this scent—faint, with a reassuring quality to it.
"ACBCC…"
Good, she hadn't forgotten Lin Yan, nor the answers.
Xu Zhiyi's emotions had steadied considerably, and she now had the spare capacity to observe the other students in the examination hall.
Their seating arrangement was strange—the seats weren't adjacent to one another; one row was occupied, the next was empty. In her group, there were five rows total, with every other row vacant, leaving exactly three rows of students seated.
Two rows ahead of her sat a male student who, from the moment he sat down, had been swaying gently from side to side.
It seemed like a relaxed, natural posture for an exam setting, but Xu Zhiyi still found it unsettling—a vague sense of wrongness she couldn't quite articulate spreading through her heart.
The last female student to enter the examination room was headed to sit behind her. As she passed by Xu Zhiyi's desk and their eyes met, a shy smile of encouragement hung on her youthful face.
Because the distance was so close, Xu Zhiyi could finally confirm what was written on their uniforms—Huamei Education School.
The uniform itself wasn't eerie—baggy sleeves, pockets on both sides large enough to roll up textbooks and stuff them inside. She stole glances with her peripheral vision, and though she didn't discover any more information, she still felt a bit lighter because of this subtle familiarity.
Not long after the last student took their seat, the footsteps of the proctor grew increasingly clear from the corridor—one step heavy, one step light.
Xu Zhiyi clutched her transparent pencil case tightly.
The door was pushed open, and in walked an older female teacher, leaning on a cane, appearing to be in her forties or fifties, with a very kind face.
She looked utterly normal—no identical standard smile like the other students wore, and when she distributed the test papers, she didn't suddenly crush anyone's head.
Xu Zhiyi had prepared herself fully to suppress a scream and flee, but what awaited her was an entirely normal procedure. The excess tension lodged in her throat, and her surplus energy could only be warily directed toward the exam paper.
Yet the exam paper was also perfectly suited to a first-year middle school student's level. Even if she'd graduated ten years ago and returned to this examination hall, she wouldn't have any trouble understanding the questions.
The paper was marked as independently authored by Huamei Education School, a periodic assessment, containing fifteen English listening questions in total.
The number of questions wasn't many, so Xu Zhiyi roughly skimmed through all the question stems from beginning to end. She didn't even see basic death threats like "die" or "blood." For a moment, she was utterly bewildered—had that mechanical voice gone to all the trouble of bringing her here just to test whether her English was good?
Come on! She'd even passed CET-6!
Still, this was better than a horror event. Xu Zhiyi cooperatively filled in her student number and name according to the exam information, then perked up to begin answering.
The broadcast began playing the corresponding dialogue for each question.
A couple discussed what color vase to buy for their new home—the options being red, blue, or yellow.
A tourist asked for directions to the post office—the options being turn left, turn right, or go straight.
Even the listening dialogue content was genuinely first-year middle school level. The entire paper was remarkably kind, with simple vocabulary. Xu Zhiyi stayed vigilant, trying to think of ways the question setter might have laid complex traps, but she couldn't even find a direction for wild speculation.
Her answers matched those on the note. After confirming the correctness of the first two questions, she quickly marked the subsequent options to prevent herself from forgetting.
But it was at that moment she realized—this paper only had answers for the first ten questions.
Perhaps there were letters written on the back of that note as well.
Xu Zhiyi pressed her lips together slightly. Unfortunately, the time she had to examine the note had been too rushed, and she hadn't had the chance to look more carefully.
Luckily, the listening section wasn't difficult. That was how she comforted herself.
But as the saying goes, what you fear most will come to you. Without any warning, the broadcast speaker that had been playing with perfect clarity suddenly sounded as if it had been covered with a layer of flannel—the audio quality became muffled, and the volume of the English dialogue between the male and female voices dropped sharply.
Fortunately, the classroom was very quiet. Even with the volume lowered, as long as she held her breath and listened carefully, she could still make out the words.
Moreover, she had already marked down the answers for the later questions.
When the fourth dialogue began, a faint swirling sound started to emerge at Xu Zhiyi's ears.
At first, she didn't realize what this sound signified.
It wasn't until the fifth question that the swirling sound grew louder, buzzing right beside her ears.
A cold, almost imperceptible pressure touched the shell of her ear.
Xu Zhiyi's pupils contracted in shock. She nearly lost her grip on her pen, and her body began trembling uncomfortably.
When she was little, during thunderstorms outside, she would find excuses to go sleep with Lin Yan. He would cover her ears with his hands, the edges of his palms gently pressing against her cheeks.
Back then, the sound that rang in her ears was exactly this faint, swirling buzz.
—Someone was sitting behind her, reaching out to cover her ears.
Being touched by someone else felt terribly wrong. A wave of chills ran through Xu Zhiyi's entire body, and she could no longer hear the broadcast clearly. Fortunately, she had marked her answers in advance, so her brief moment of fear and distraction didn't affect her responses.
Perhaps because she had become aware of the presence behind her, more translucent black shadows began to appear before her eyes—humanoid in form, sitting upright behind the other students.
And the boy in front of her, who had been constantly swaying his body from side to side since she entered the exam hall, was only doing so because behind him, that black shadow was gripping his head and shaking him relentlessly, causing his shoulders to sway along with it.
Xu Zhiyi pretended she hadn't noticed anything, slowly lowering her head, though the strength with which she gripped her pen increased considerably. Her body trembled even without being shaken, clearly terrified of falling into the same situation herself.
But this wasn't the only predicament she faced at the moment.
Her ears could barely hear anything anymore.
There were still ten questions left on the paper, and she could only be certain of the answers to the first five.
If she still couldn't hear the dialogues clearly for the remaining questions, in the end, she would have no choice but to guess blindly.
Xu Zhiyi had never been a particularly lucky person.
As time passed, the pressure at her ears seemed to grow heavier.
Xu Zhiyi took a deep breath, suppressing the nausea, and reached a trembling hand up to her cheek. Sure enough, she touched something smooth and soft like skin, its temperature icy cold, reminding her of the palm Lin Yan would press against her forehead when she had a fever.
Because she had associated this creature with her brother, she felt a small surge of anger at herself for a few seconds.
Xu Zhiyi applied some force and quickly discovered that it was difficult to push him away. But this was within her expectations. Her fingers moved slowly, inch by inch, slipping into the gap of his palm, trying to pry open a small space between his hand and her ear… at least enough to make the broadcast sound clearer.
She successfully touched her own ear.
Even though that cold, clammy sensation still clung tightly to the back of her hand, gripping her fingers, at least the classroom broadcast had suddenly become much clearer—more than enough to support her in making the correct judgments for the questions that followed.
By the time she reached the final question, Xu Zhiyi's anxiety had reached its peak, afraid that something might go wrong.
But accidents don't simply fail to happen just because one is prepared.
"Screech—"
At the end of the last dialogue, the broadcast suddenly malfunctioned, and Xu Zhiyi only managed to hear the homeowner reject the blue towel recommended by the salesperson.
The remaining choices were red and purple, and judging by the surface alone, there was no way to tell which one the house owner had ultimately chosen.
Xu Zhiyi felt as if she had fallen into an ice pit.
The consequences of answering incorrectly were still unclear, but in a place like this, perhaps it was best to be an exemplary full-marks student.
The cheat sheet with the answers written on it was tucked inside her right sleeve.
…Should she pull it out and take a look?
Xu Zhiyi looked up. The proctor was gazing elsewhere, and it didn't seem at all like someone who would keenly catch a student cheating.
After a long moment, she set down her hand that had been reaching for her sleeve in defeat. As a student with a clean moral record of over a decade, she simply lacked the confidence that she could, on her very first attempt at cheating, perfectly evade the teacher's watchful eyes.
Her pen tip hovered hesitantly over option A.
Just as she was about to write, the fingers she had propped against her ear were suddenly given a gentle squeeze.
Light and soft.