Lin Xia did not tell them.
Not yet.
She walked down the corridor with Yue Ning and Mei Chen beside her, keeping her expression as neutral as possible.
Behind them, Room 318 remained open.
That bothered her.
A room that had been sealed for years had suddenly opened.
A projector that had no visible power source had started by itself.
A message had appeared specifically for her.
And now the door was simply standing there as if nothing had happened.
The school continued around them.
Students passed without looking twice.
A boy ran around the corner carrying three books.
Two girls argued over whose turn it was to play a card game.
Someone complained loudly about losing a Mahjong match.
Everything was normal.
Too normal.
Mei Chen finally spoke.
"You're hiding something."
Lin Xia kept walking.
"No."
"Yes."
Yue Ning glanced between them.
"She's right."
Lin Xia stopped.
"What makes you think that?"
"You went quiet after the projector turned on."
Mei Chen folded her arms.
"You always go quiet when you're trying to figure something out."
"That doesn't mean I'm hiding something."
"It does when you refuse to look at us."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"I am looking at you."
"Now."
Yue Ning sighed.
"Can we not do this in the middle of the hallway?"
Mei Chen lowered her voice.
"Fine."
They continued walking.
Bai followed several steps behind.
She had said almost nothing since leaving Room 318.
Lin Xia noticed.
She also noticed something else.
Bai wasn't looking at the room.
She was looking at the students.
More specifically, at their faces.
As if she was searching for someone.
Lin Xia slowed down until Bai caught up.
"You're looking for someone."
Bai's eyes shifted toward her.
"No."
"You are."
Bai hesitated.
Then she whispered,
"I'm trying to remember."
"Remember what?"
"The face of my friend."
Lin Xia said nothing.
Bai looked down the corridor.
"I remember everything except her name."
"You said she disappeared three years ago."
"Yes."
"And you don't remember her face?"
"I remember pieces."
"Which pieces?"
"Her hair."
"What color?"
"Black."
"Anything else?"
Bai closed her eyes.
"She wore a silver hair clip."
Lin Xia waited.
"She always carried a red notebook."
Lin Xia's expression changed.
"Like yours?"
Bai immediately looked at her.
"No."
A beat.
"Not like mine."
"Then what was different?"
Bai's face tightened.
"I don't remember."
Yue Ning had heard them.
She turned.
"You remember the notebook?"
Bai nodded.
"Do you remember what was written in it?"
"No."
"Where is it?"
Bai didn't answer.
Mei Chen looked between them.
"What?"
Bai finally said,
"I found it in Room 318."
The four of them stopped.
Lin Xia's voice became quiet.
"You found her notebook there?"
"Yes."
"Where is it now?"
"I don't know."
Yue Ning frowned.
"You lost it?"
"No."
"Then?"
Bai looked toward the floor.
"The system took it."
Mei Chen stared.
"How?"
"I left it on a desk."
"And?"
"When I came back, it was gone."
Lin Xia asked,
"Did you search the room?"
"Yes."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
Yue Ning looked thoughtful.
"Maybe it wasn't taken."
Bai looked at her.
"Then where is it?"
"Maybe it was never there."
Bai's expression hardened.
"I know what I saw."
"I didn't say you didn't."
"Then what are you saying?"
Yue Ning looked at the four of them.
"The game might be able to create memories."
Nobody responded.
Yue Ning continued.
"We've already seen evidence that it can manipulate information. We know it can erase things. We know it can predict behavior."
She pointed toward Bai's notebook.
"So why couldn't it make someone remember finding something that wasn't there?"
Bai stared at her.
"Because I touched it."
"That doesn't prove anything."
"I read it."
"That proves even less."
Mei Chen rubbed her forehead.
"This is becoming impossible."
Lin Xia looked at Yue Ning.
"Could it create memories?"
"I don't know."
"Could it create physical objects?"
"I don't know."
"Could it make us believe something happened when it didn't?"
Yue Ning hesitated.
"That," she said, "I think it can."
Lin Xia looked toward the ceiling.
The cameras.
There were cameras everywhere.
If the system could watch them, then perhaps it didn't need to physically control them.
It only needed to control what they believed they had seen.
Her stomach tightened.
She remembered the final message.
DO NOT ALLOW SUBJECT TO EXIT.
Was that a warning?
A threat?
Or another test?
She still didn't know.
But she knew one thing.
She couldn't tell the others yet.
Not until she understood why the message had been visible only to her.
They returned to their classroom.
The room was nearly empty.
Most students were still at lunch.
Mei Chen closed the door.
"Okay."
She turned around.
"We need rules."
Yue Ning sat down.
"Agreed."
Mei Chen held up one finger.
"First: nobody investigates alone."
Bai looked away.
Mei Chen noticed.
"That includes you."
Bai nodded.
"Fine."
"Second: nobody accepts a challenge without telling the others."
Lin Xia nodded.
"Good."
"Third: if the system gives any of us a private message, we tell everyone."
Lin Xia froze.
Yue Ning noticed.
Mei Chen noticed too.
Bai slowly looked at her.
Lin Xia knew she had been caught.
She could have lied.
She didn't.
"I got one."
Silence.
Mei Chen's face fell.
"What?"
Yue Ning stared at her.
"When?"
"In Room 318."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Lin Xia looked at the three of them.
"Because it said something specifically about me."
"What?"
Lin Xia hesitated.
Then she repeated it.
"Primary variable. Observation level increased."
Mei Chen stared.
"And?"
Lin Xia's voice became quieter.
"It told the system not to let me leave."
Nobody spoke.
Yue Ning stood.
"That's different."
Bai's expression had changed completely.
"Very."
Mei Chen walked toward Lin Xia.
"Why would it choose you?"
"I don't know."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"You broke Bai's prediction."
Yue Ning interrupted.
"That's probably it."
Everyone looked at her.
Yue Ning paced slowly.
"The system was predicting player behavior."
She pointed at Lin Xia.
"She deliberately became difficult to predict."
"That's not enough," Bai said.
"It might be."
Bai shook her head.
"No."
She looked directly at Lin Xia.
"It didn't become interested in her because she beat me."
"Then why?"
"Because she made a move the system couldn't understand."
Lin Xia frowned.
"What move?"
Bai answered:
"Choosing not to know."
Yue Ning stopped pacing.
"What does that mean?"
Bai looked at Lin Xia.
"You didn't try to predict me."
She paused.
"You deliberately stopped predicting."
Lin Xia remembered.
During the checkers match, she had stopped calculating what Bai's device expected.
Instead, she had created positions based on uncertainty.
She hadn't tried to find the perfect move.
She had made the board difficult to understand.
Bai continued.
"That's something players don't normally do."
Mei Chen frowned.
"Why?"
"Because everyone wants certainty."
Bai looked toward the window.
"The system was built around that."
Lin Xia slowly understood.
It wasn't simply learning their strategies.
It was learning human behavior.
And humans usually wanted to know what would happen next.
She had refused.
That made her different.
That made her dangerous.
Or useful.
Possibly both.
The classroom door opened.
All four turned.
A student stood outside.
The same tall boy Lin Xia had seen earlier.
Player 4.
Shen Lin.
He looked at them calmly.
Then he held up a white card.
"Lin Xia?"
She stood.
"Yes?"
He smiled.
"Your match has been approved."
Mei Chen stepped forward.
"She didn't accept anything."
Shen Lin's smile disappeared.
"I know."
Yue Ning's eyes narrowed.
"Then why are you here?"
He looked at Bai.
Bai had gone completely still.
Shen Lin said:
"Because she already did."
Lin Xia frowned.
"I never accepted a challenge."
Shen Lin placed the card on the nearest desk.
"You did."
He turned around.
Then he stopped.
Without looking back, he said:
"You just don't remember accepting it."
The door closed.
Nobody moved.
Mei Chen slowly picked up the card.
There was no challenge request.
No opponent selection.
No game.
Only one sentence.
ACCEPTANCE RECORDED: 3 YEARS AGO.
Bai's face drained of color.
Lin Xia stared at the date.
Three years ago.
The exact year Bai's friend disappeared.
Yue Ning whispered,
"Lin Xia…"
Lin Xia couldn't answer.
Because beneath the date was another line.
A player number.
PLAYER 18.
Her number.
Her name.
Her identity.
Recorded three years before she had ever entered XO Project.
And beneath it, in smaller text:
MATCH DEFERRED.
REASON: PLAYER NOT READY.
The classroom lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the computer on Lin Xia's desk turned on.
A single message appeared.
NOW SHE IS.