The day after I handed in Derivative Training Set 14, something happened in skills class.
Chen Lan was just covering the second half of the Divine Authority Systems, about the synergy between the Seventh Authority (Time) and the Eighth Authority (Causality, when the classroom lights flickered—not from unstable voltage, but from a rule-level fluctuation. The concept of "light" itself was briefly extracted for a single frame.
Ordinary people didn't notice, just a momentary eye twitch. But the pencil in my hand trembled, the cracks on its barrel emitting silvery-white micro-light.
"Lin Jin." Chen Lan's voice came from the lectern, "Come up and draw a rule model of the Time Authority."
I walked to the front, picked up the chalk, and drew a Möbius strip on the blackboard. This wasn't what she asked for, but it was more accurate—the essence of time is cyclical paradox.
As the chalk touched the board, golden text suddenly seeped from the surface like blood:
[Lin Jin, workbook received. Your handwriting has improved]
The entire class erupted. Li Ming jumped from his chair: "Holy shit, the blackboard's become sentient!"
Chen Lan's expression changed. The tactical bracelet in her sleeve vibrated. Ignoring the students' commotion, she directly pressed the emergency button.
"Everyone close your eyes!" she shouted, "This is rule contamination!"
But too late. Three students had already stared at those words for over three seconds, and golden blood vessels began crawling in their pupils.
"Damn." She cursed quietly, "It's Image Master's reverse trace."
She turned to me: "Lin Jin, rewrite it."
I didn't use the pencil. I directly drew a huge X on the blackboard with chalk and wrote:
[No writing permitted here]
The golden words struggled like a snake with its neck snapped, then shattered into light points and dissipated. But the three students' pupils didn't recover—the golden blood vessels kept swimming in their sclera like living cracks.
"Take them to the infirmary." Chen Lan told the class monitor, "Quickly."
The students were helped away, the classroom emptied. She closed the door, her face dark enough to drip water.
"Image Master is tracking the skills classroom through your workbook." She said, "Every problem you write, he can track once."
"Then I won't write?"
"If you don't, he comes directly." She massaged her brow, "Write, and he plays slowly. He chose to play slowly."
"What does he want?"
"Wants you." She said, "And wants this school."
She pulled up data: "In the past week, 17 students in skills class showed mild sync rate fluctuations, values between 0.1% and 0.5%. For ordinary people, this is equivalent to chronic poisoning—won't immediately mutate, but will become obsessed with Rift Zone items."
"Wish stones?"
"Right." She said, "The black market board changed strategy. Instead of directly selling crystals, they sell 'stories' to teachers, who resell to students. Teacher Zhang is the biggest distributor."
"He didn't teach today." I said, "Called in sick."
"Went to the old district." She brought up surveillance, "23:17, he entered a bookstore. Name—"
She paused, pulling up the footage.
The bookstore sign had four words: "Forgotten Bookstore."
My heart clenched. That was three months ago, my first solo clearance of a Level-C2 Rift Zone. The owner was an old man selling "stories." I once bought "graduation certification."
"The bookstore is still there?" I couldn't believe it, "I clearly..."
"You clearly cleared it?" Chen Lan sneered, "Image Master rebuilt it, using the 'obsession' of 17 students as anchors. Now that bookstore is the black market board's second stronghold."
"The first stronghold was the old district market?"
"The first stronghold is Changzheng High." She said, "The skills classroom is the largest Rift Zone entrance."
I took a step back, looking at this classroom where I'd attended class for six days. Walls, blackboard, desks, ceiling lights—everything looked normal, but too normal, like a meticulously arranged set.
"We're still in a Rift Zone?" I asked.
"From day one." She said, "Level-C5, 'Campus Simulator.' Every class you attend charges this Rift Zone."
"Then you, Chen Lan..."
"I'm an Administration proctor." She revealed the badge on her left chest—not Education Department, but Rift Zone Administration, "My mission is to ensure students aren't devoured before the 'exam' ends."
"Exam?"
"Right." She said, "Image Master's question tests 'humanity.' Every homework you write is an answer. Answer correctly, he takes your story; answer incorrectly, you become the story."
"Then what's the correct answer?"
"There is no correct answer." She smiled, "Because this exam, he grades himself."
---
22:30, Administration briefing room.
After I finished my report, the entire squad fell silent.
"We fought the black market for two weeks." Zhou Fang smiled bitterly, "Turns out they opened the black market in our school, and we went to class there every day."
"Class was cover." Gu Yan said, "Chen Lan built a simulated Rift Zone to trace the bookstore. Students were bait, we were the bait's bodyguards."
"Did we trace it then?"
"Traced." Gu Yan brought up a map, "The bookstore location is dynamic, moves every 24 hours, but the movement pattern follows the cycle of the Nine Divine Authorities. Next appearance location—"
He paused, clicking a red X on the map:
"Changzheng High, old campus abandoned laboratory. Time: Tomorrow 15:00, during skills class."
"He's deliberate." Tang Lan said, "He knows we'll be there, so he's waiting for us there."
"So it's a trap." I said.
"Not a trap." Shen Xingyao said, "It's a transaction."
She pulled up Accountant's communication records. An hour ago, the black market board sent a new message:
[Last transaction, board is satisfied]
[But admission ticket expired]
[New ticket requires higher-level trust]
"Higher level?" I asked.
"Right." She said, "Last time it was a corroded teammate, this time..."
She didn't finish, but I understood.
This time, it was core secrets.
---
23:00, the chief's office.
"What do they want?" the chief asked.
"Shen Xingyao's spatial sovereignty core code." Gu Yan said, "Tang Lan's shield origin, Gu Yan's sister's memory data, Zhou Fang's self-destruct jammer blueprints, and..."
He looked at me: "Lin Jin's original pencil."
"Original pencil?"
"That cracked HB pencil you brought from the Level-C3 classroom." Shen Xingyao said, "It's not an ordinary pencil. It's the product of Rift Zone core fragments merging with your humanity. Every word you write with it redefines the concept of 'Lin Jin.'"
"What can they do with the pencil?"
"Copy you." White Gloves said, "Copy not just your abilities, but your existence. Then there will be two Lin Jins—one at the Administration, one with the Original Sect. Even we can't tell them apart."
"What do we do?"
"Don't give it." The chief said, "But we have to pretend to give."
He knocked on the table: "Initiate 'Trojan Phase Two.' Lin Jin, you take a fake pencil there, use rules to write it as a 'real pencil.' Image Master will read its rules, thinking he got the real thing but actually..."
"Actually?" I pressed.
"Actually, that fake pencil contains Shen Xingyao's seventeenth mark." She said, "Once he uses it, I can reverse-lock onto his real body's coordinates."
"Will he believe?"
"He will." Gu Yan said, "My model shows his desire value has overflowed. The more someone wants something, the easier they believe it's real."
"What about the other secrets?"
"Give fakes too." Shen Xingyao said, "Tang Lan's shield origin, I'll give her an empty shell core. Zhou Fang's jammer blueprints, I'll delete key circuits. Gu Yan's sister's memories..." she paused, "that can't be given, because they don't exist."
"What do you mean?"
"My sister's memories were deleted three years ago." Gu Yan said, "I deleted them myself. To prevent Image Master from copying them."
He adjusted his glasses, voice calm like discussing the weather: "So, he can't get the real thing. Because the real thing no longer exists."
---
00:00, dormitory.
I lay in bed, holding the fake pencil.
It was a brand-new HB pencil, given by White Gloves, smooth barrel, no cracks. I wrote with my real pencil:
[This pencil is real]
The letters seeped in. The fake pencil's barrel immediately became covered in dense cracks, looking identical to the real one, even imitating the silvery-white light flawlessly.
"Looks like it?" White Gloves's voice came from the shadows.
"Looks." I said, "But fake is fake."
"What if Image Master is also fake?"
I froze: "What do you mean?"
"Meaning." He smoked a purple cigarette, "Maybe there is no Image Master. Maybe Image Master is just one of Scarlet's concepts."
"Scarlet? The Original Sect one?"
"Right." He said, "War Authority's ability isn't just tearing enemies apart. It can tear apart 'concepts,' ripping the 'Image Master' concept from reality and turning it into an independent existence."
"So the Image Master we're chasing..."
"Is Scarlet's tool." He said, "When a tool is used up, it's discarded. Just like you tearing up your workbook."
A chill ran down my spine.
If Image Master is fake, then the entire black market board might be Scarlet's pawns.
We've been playing chess with a shadow for half a month.
"Sleep." White Gloves said, "Tomorrow 15:00, old campus abandoned laboratory. Bring the fake pencil, hand in your homework."
"What homework?"
"Derivative Training Set 15." He said, "What Image Master wants is homework written by your own hand."
"Isn't he afraid I'll poison him?"
"He's not afraid." White Gloves smiled, "Because poison is also part of the story."
He vanished, leaving me alone with the fake pencil.
I couldn't sleep. I got up and opened Derivative Training Set 15, first problem implicit differentiation, very hard, I did it three times with three answers.
Beside the third answer, I wrote with my real pencil:
[Scarlet, I'm here to dismantle your stage]
Silvery-white letters, like a challenge.
Then I used the fake pencil to write a solution below the problem.
The letters were also silvery-white, but the light was hollow, floating on the paper's surface.
Two pencils, two Lin Jins.
One real, one fake.
One writes stories, one writes rules.
Image Master wants the latter; Scarlet wants the former.
I, I'll give both.