The anomaly didn't originate in one place.
It happened simultaneously.
Although lunchtime hadn't ended yet, the atmosphere on campus had already changed — not the temperature or the light, but an indescribable sense of pressure, as if something had awoken in every corner of the campus at once.
Although no broadcast sounded and no alarms were triggered, people in the corridors began to slow their pace unconsciously.
Some frowned, some felt suddenly irritable and some instinctively glanced back, although they didn't know what they were searching for.
Cracks appeared simultaneously at multiple points.
The victim was a first-year student.
The incident occurred in the passageway connecting the old school building to the new wing — an area with wide visibility but little foot traffic. She had been looking down at her phone when she suddenly seemed to trip over something, her entire body lunging forward.
But she didn't fall.
An invisible hand reached up from beneath the ground and seized her ankle.
It wasn't solid, yet it exerted a definite pull. Before she could scream, her body was dragged towards the edge of an unnatural shadow.
It wasn't an opening, but rather a tear in reality.
Those around her froze for a second before reacting.
"Hey—!"
"Hold her!"
Someone dashed forward, but stopped the instant they neared the fissure — an instinctive repulsion was too potent; it was as if their bodies were making the decision for them. Do not approach any closer.'
Li was nearby.
The first sensation he experienced wasn't a visual image, but a vibration in his chest.
That familiar low-frequency resonance was stronger than ever before — not a headache, but a sensation of being pulled inwards and synchronised.
He looked up.
He saw the moment the student was almost pulled into the fissure.
His thoughts lasted less than a second.
Li had already lunged forward.
He didn't call her name or glance at those around him. He simply reached out and seized her wrist.
The touch was distinct.
This wasn't a dream.
The next instant, a powerful recoil surged up his arm. The spirit's emotions erupted completely out of control — resentment, fear and chaos all surged forth.
Yet the moment it touched Li, it broke off.
There was no tugging or struggle.
It was as if the power had been cut off.
The edge of the fissure shook violently, then collapsed back into the original reality. The shadow was forcibly compressed and dispersed, leaving no trace.
It all happened too fast.
So fast that Li himself froze for a second.
He had only instinctively pulled the student backwards. The next moment, the student had fallen into his arms, gasping for breath and as pale as a sheet, yet unharmed.
Dead silence hung around them.
No one spoke.
They had all seen it.
This was no illusion, misperception or mere semblance — they had clearly witnessed it.
The spirit entity had vanished the instant it touched Li.
Only then did Li realise that something was amiss.
He slowly lifted his head and found himself surrounded by a circle of stunned, speechless gazes. The air felt frozen, as if time itself had slowed by half a beat.
'I...' His mouth opened, but no words came.
His hand was still clutching the student.
The trembling student grabbed his sleeve, his voice hoarse. 'It was you just now, right?'
No one contradicted him.
Because no one could deny it.
Minutes later, teachers and school officials arrived, cordoned off the scene and took everyone away for questioning.
But the news was impossible to contain.'Did you hear?'
'That guy pulled someone right back from the crack.'
'Not the Night Division or the Student Council.'
Just an ordinary student.'
The surveillance footage played on a loop.
The atmosphere inside the Night Division's monitoring room was heavier than ever before."This isn't interference.
'This isn't a coincidence.''This is deliberate, repeatable suppression.'
Someone murmured:
'We've been seen.'
On the edge of another layer of dreams, Mio stood frozen to the spot, her heart pounding so hard that it felt as though it might burst from her chest.
She sensed it —
Not through the footage, but through that moment when the world amplified his presence.
He had acted, and he had been seen.
Mio closed her eyes, her fingertips turning cold.
From this moment on, everything would accelerate. Order would cease its watch and the Nightwalkers would abandon their probing.
Li had no way out.
And neither did she.
Mio was enveloped in blackness in her dream.
It was not night or shadow, but a pure blackness — like the void left when all background noise is silenced.
She stood in the middle of it, with no ground beneath her feet, yet she remained steady.
The next instant, the sound of wings cutting through the air echoed — not just once, but repeatedly.
Not just once.
The darkness parted as a white crow landed before her. Its feathers were impossibly pristine, as if untouched by dust, yet its eyes were an unfathomable, bottomless black.
It tilted its head, observing her.
'You crossed the line.'
The words weren't spoken, but seemed to appear directly within her consciousness.
Mio didn't deny it.
'He has been seen,' the white crow continued. 'You know what that means.'
Mio's fingertips tightened slowly.
Of course she knew.
Once an anomaly had been confirmed by the world, it ceased to be an ambiguous variable and became a target for processing.
'You left a trace.'
'Not for him, but for the system.'
White Crow fluttered its wings. Its feathers lingered briefly in the air before being swiftly swallowed by darkness.
'Continue approaching and he will be verified.
Not possibly, but inevitably.'
Mio lifted her head, her voice slightly hoarse. "But what if I don't approach?"White Crow fell silent for a moment.'Then he'll be treated as the source of the breach.'
There are two options, and neither is safe.
Mio suddenly smiled faintly.
'So from the start, there was never an option for me to walk away unscathed.'
The White Crow didn't argue.
It merely took a step forward, close enough for her to see the fine cracks between its feathers.
'You can only choose once.'
His voice lowered.
'If you continue to intervene, he'll survive, but you'll be logged by the system. Withdraw, and he'll be purged while you're deemed compliant.'
Mio's heart clenched violently.
She knew all too well what 'being logged' meant — not death, but a slower, more agonising form of vanishing."Why me?" she asked.Bai Ya looked at her.Bai Ya looked at her as though to confirm that she truly didn't know the answer.
'Because he has already seen you.'
The words had barely left his mouth before Mio nearly lost her footing.
It wasn't that he had seen her; they had acknowledged each other's existence.
Bai Ya spread his wings and the darkness began to dissipate.
'The next time you intervene, the system won't just monitor him.'
Mio closed her eyes.
Before the dream collapsed, she murmured softly:
'...Then I choose.'
Bai Ya didn't ask what she had chosen.
From the moment she spoke those words, the answer had already been written into the world.
When Mio awoke, dawn was breaking.
She sat on the edge of the bed, breathing steadily; yet, for the first time, she didn't immediately slip into her daily rhythm.
She knew that from that moment on, she would have to calculate every choice she made.
Li's existence no longer concerned only himself.