The words remained on the screen.
NOW SHE IS.
Lin Xia stared at them.
Three years.
The number wouldn't leave her head.
Three years ago, she had never heard of XO Project.
She had never seen this school.
She had never met Bai Shuying.
She had never played inside the game.
Yet the system had a record saying she had accepted a challenge.
Not yesterday.
Not last month.
Three years ago.
Mei Chen was the first to speak.
"That's impossible."
Nobody answered.
She walked closer to the computer.
"That's literally impossible."
Yue Ning didn't take her eyes off the screen.
"Unless the date is fake."
Bai shook her head.
"No."
Everyone looked at her.
Bai pointed at the bottom corner of the screen.
"The system uses a fixed archive timestamp."
Yue Ning frowned.
"How do you know?"
"Because I tested it."
"When?"
"Three years ago."
Mei Chen looked exhausted.
"Of course you did."
Bai ignored her.
"If the system says an event happened on a certain date, that date doesn't change."
Lin Xia finally spoke.
"Then it happened."
Bai looked at her.
"Yes."
"But I wasn't here."
"No."
"I wasn't a player."
"No."
"Then who accepted it?"
Nobody answered.
Lin Xia looked at the name.
LIN XIA
The system had not confused her with someone else.
It had her exact identity.
Her player number.
Her challenge.
Her acceptance.
Everything.
Yue Ning suddenly grabbed the mouse.
"Maybe we can access the original record."
She opened the system menu.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
The screen froze.
Then a message appeared.
ACCESS DENIED.
Yue Ning frowned.
She clicked again.
ARCHIVE LOCKED.
Again.
REASON: PARTICIPANT STATUS.
She stopped.
"Participant status?"
Mei Chen leaned closer.
"What does that mean?"
Yue Ning shook her head.
"I don't know."
Bai suddenly whispered,
"I do."
Everyone turned toward her.
Bai looked frightened.
Not confused.
Not surprised.
Frightened.
"When I went into Room 318 three years ago," she said, "I found a list of players."
Lin Xia waited.
"There were numbers."
"How many?"
"Hundreds."
"Current players?"
"No."
Bai swallowed.
"Previous players."
She pointed toward the computer.
"And among them…"
She stopped.
Lin Xia's voice became quiet.
"Was I there?"
Bai nodded.
"Yes."
The room went silent.
Mei Chen sat down.
"Okay."
She rubbed her face.
"Let's say that's true."
Yue Ning looked at her.
"That's a very large thing to say casually."
"I know."
Mei Chen looked at Lin Xia.
"But we need to think logically."
Lin Xia nodded.
"Go on."
"If Lin Xia's name was in the archive three years ago, then there are only a few possibilities."
She raised one finger.
"Someone used her identity."
Second finger.
"Someone created a record using her identity."
Third.
"Or…"
She stopped.
Lin Xia finished the sentence.
"I was here."
Nobody spoke.
Mei Chen immediately shook her head.
"No."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do."
"How?"
"Because I know you."
Mei Chen's voice became firmer.
"You would remember something like this."
Lin Xia looked down.
Would she?
That question had never occurred to her before.
But now it did.
She had always trusted her memories.
Her childhood.
Her school.
Her family.
Her life before XO Project.
What if one piece was missing?
What if she had forgotten something?
Bai's notebook suddenly came to mind.
NEVER TRUST YOUR MEMORY AFTER ENTERING THE ARCHIVE.
Lin Xia looked at Bai.
"Did your friend forget things before she disappeared?"
Bai slowly nodded.
"Yes."
"What did she forget?"
"Small things at first."
"Like?"
"Names."
"Places."
"Dates."
Bai looked at Lin Xia.
"Then people."
Mei Chen's expression changed.
"What does that mean?"
Bai's voice became quieter.
"She would look at someone she had known for years and not recognize them."
Yue Ning's eyes narrowed.
"Memory manipulation."
"Maybe."
"Or neurological damage."
Bai shook her head.
"Everyone who entered the Archive described the same thing."
Lin Xia stared at the screen.
"So what happened to your friend?"
Bai didn't answer.
Lin Xia asked again.
"What happened?"
"She remembered someone who wasn't supposed to exist."
Yue Ning looked up.
"Who?"
Bai's eyes moved to Lin Xia.
"I don't know."
A long silence followed.
Then Bai said:
"She told me there was a player who had entered XO Project before any of us."
Lin Xia's heart began beating faster.
"How long before?"
Bai shook her head.
"She didn't know."
"Did she know their number?"
"Yes."
"What was it?"
Bai hesitated.
Then:
"Eighteen."
Lin Xia looked at the screen.
PLAYER 18.
Her player number.
Mei Chen stood abruptly.
"No."
Bai continued.
"She said Player 18 wasn't a normal player."
"What was different?"
"They had no registration date."
Lin Xia stared.
"No registration date?"
"None."
"Then how could they exist?"
"They didn't know."
Yue Ning stepped closer.
"Did your friend say what happened to Player 18?"
Bai nodded.
"She said Player 18 disappeared."
Lin Xia's throat tightened.
"When?"
"Three years ago."
Nobody spoke.
Mei Chen looked between Bai and Lin Xia.
"Wait."
She pointed at the computer.
"Then if Player 18 disappeared three years ago…"
She looked at Lin Xia.
"…and Lin Xia's acceptance was recorded three years ago…"
Yue Ning finished:
"Then the system may not have registered Lin Xia as a new player."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"It may have registered me as a returning player."
The words seemed to change the room.
Bai slowly sat down.
"That would explain it."
Mei Chen stared.
"Explain what?"
"Why the system recognized her immediately."
Yue Ning looked at Lin Xia.
"Why it called you a variable."
"And why it has been watching me."
Bai nodded.
"And why your behavior is different."
Lin Xia looked down at her hands.
For the first time since entering XO Project, she wondered whether the game had actually been waiting for her.
Not waiting for someone.
Waiting for her.
A notification appeared.
All four girls looked up.
PLAYER 18 — HISTORY RESTORED.
Lin Xia's blood ran cold.
The screen changed.
A list appeared.
FIRST ENTRY: UNKNOWN
FIRST GAME: UNKNOWN
FIRST OPPONENT: UNKNOWN
STATUS: INCOMPLETE
Then:
MEMORY: LOCKED
Yue Ning stepped closer.
"It's restoring your history."
Lin Xia whispered,
"I never knew I had one."
The system displayed another line.
MEMORY RECOVERY: 1%
Mei Chen immediately reached for the power cable.
"Turn it off."
She pulled it.
Nothing happened.
She pulled harder.
The screen stayed on.
"It's not connected."
Bai whispered:
"Don't."
Mei Chen stopped.
"Why?"
"Because if the system is restoring something, interrupting it could make it worse."
Mei Chen stared at her.
"And you know that how?"
Bai didn't answer.
The number changed.
2%.
Lin Xia felt a sharp pressure behind her eyes.
She grabbed the edge of the desk.
Yue Ning noticed immediately.
"Lin Xia?"
"I'm fine."
"You're not."
Lin Xia closed her eyes.
Something flashed.
A room.
A wooden table.
White tiles.
Someone laughing.
A hand pushing a game piece forward.
Then a voice.
A girl's voice.
"Don't let them see you think."
Lin Xia opened her eyes.
Her breathing was uneven.
"Did you see that?"
Mei Chen shook her head.
"No."
Yue Ning stared at her.
"What did you see?"
Lin Xia tried to remember.
The image was already fading.
"A game."
"What game?"
"Mahjong."
Bai went completely still.
"That's impossible."
Lin Xia looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because Player 18's first recorded game was Mahjong."
Lin Xia's face went pale.
"How do you know?"
Bai reached for her notebook.
She flipped through several pages.
Then stopped.
She turned the notebook around.
A sentence had been written across the page.
PLAYER 18 — FIRST GAME: MAHJONG
Below it:
OPPONENT: SHEN LIN
Lin Xia stared.
Shen Lin.
Player 4.
The boy who had just walked into their classroom.
The boy Bai claimed was dead.
Yue Ning looked at the page.
"That's not possible."
Bai whispered,
"I know."
The computer made a sound.
A new notification.
MATCH RESTORED.
The screen went black.
Then two names appeared.
PLAYER 18 — LIN XIA
PLAYER 4 — SHEN LIN
Underneath:
ORIGINAL MATCH
STATUS: INTERRUPTED
Then:
RESUMPTION AVAILABLE.
Mei Chen backed away.
"No."
Yue Ning's expression hardened.
"They want her to play him."
Bai shook her head.
"No."
Lin Xia looked at her.
Bai's voice trembled.
"They don't want her to play him."
She pointed at the screen.
"They want her to remember him."
The computer displayed one final line.
MATCH RESUMPTION: 24 HOURS.
Then the screen shut off.
Silence.
Lin Xia remained staring at the black screen.
Somewhere in the school, students cheered over a game.
A bell rang.
A teacher shouted for students to return to class.
Everything continued as normal.
But Lin Xia knew now that something had happened to her before she ever entered XO Project.
Something involving Player 4.
Something involving Mahjong.
Something she had forgotten.
And somewhere inside the school—
a player who was supposed to be dead was waiting for her to remember.