One thought consumed me.
Aria wanted to eat me.
26
All of Aria's hands reached for me from every direction.
By all rights, I should have been terrified.
But for some reason, my mind was preternaturally calm.
It was as if I'd become someone else entirely.
In an instant, I spotted the only opening—eleven o'clock—the one direction I could dodge.
I leapt like a frog, clearing the forest of grasping arms.
But a split second later, my back was struck hard.
A burning pain spread across my entire back.
I forced myself upright.
I was about to scan for an escape route when a massive hand clamped around my throat, slamming me into the ground.
There was no way out.
I stared at the monster before me—clad in dangling organs and limbs.
Every one of her bloodshot eyes was open and trained on me.
Except the ones that had already gone dead.
Suffocation flooded my chest, driving out every coherent thought.
In the end, I was nearly comatose.
It felt like the only person I could talk to was myself.
27
"How do I escape?"
"You can't. Fight her!"
...
"I can't..."
"I can!"
...
"But she doesn't have any weaknesses!"
"I can find one!"
...
"I'm such an idiot. How could I be so naive?"
"I'm not naive! I have to find it! I have to!"
...
"Can I really trust myself?"
"Yes!"
...
"Weakness... weakness... forget it. I'm about to die. She's not even a real opponent!"
"Then make someone else her opponent! That's it! That's right!"
...
"Who?"
"The app!"
...
"The app?"
"The app's rules!"
...
"Right, the rules override everything, but... which rule?"
"Who cares!"
...
Suddenly, the voices in my head merged into one.
A single sentence:
"Grab her phone first!"
28
That sentence was like a switch.
It drew on the last dregs of my strength.
My hand rose, pried the massive fingers from my throat.
I fell to the ground, gasping.
At the same time, I rolled from beneath the car to the other side.
Huddled behind the vehicle, I watched Aria's movements—and bellowed at Jessie:
"Jessie! Throw me the knife!"
In my peripheral vision, Jessie sprinted.
Straight ahead, Aria's hulking body lunged at me!
I gritted my teeth. This time, I didn't dodge.
As Aria leapt, I rolled under her body once more.
My eyes tracked every inch of her.
Her front.
Her underside.
Her back.
Her...
"Found it!"
I shouted, looking at Jessie.
She had the knife, trembling, but her eyes blazed with courage.
"On her back! The palest arm! She's holding a phone!"
"Jessie, pass the—"
But I'd been distracted by calling out to her.
Before I finished, Aria's hands seized my arms.
She lifted me bodily and hurled me across the garage. I slammed into the ground, my throat thick with the taste of blood.
The thudding sound returned.
Aria, a silent monster, walked toward me.
Then—
An explosion of dark red blood erupted from Aria's back!
The scene froze.
Aria turned slowly.
Behind her stood Jessie, face covered in blood, holding a phone aloft.
"Got it!" she screamed, waving her phone at me.
I shouted back: "Check her account ID!"
Jessie's eyes lit up with understanding. She tapped the phone.
"The ID is... 1980!"
"Agh—"
One of Aria's mouths let out a piercing shriek as she lunged at Jessie.
I yanked out my phone and typed furiously on the forum:
"Add ID 1980 as a friend—everyone can survive!"
29
After I posted, I looked back at Aria.
Jessie's leg was caught in Aria's grip.
She was still struggling, but it was no use.
I hauled myself up, grabbed a brick from the floor, and shouted hoarsely: "I'm coming—hold on!"
I took two steps—then froze.
Jessie had just pushed Aria off.
Aria's bulk tumbled backward, rolling twice.
Both Jessie and I stared in disbelief.
Jessie was looking at her own hands, still in shock.
And when I looked back at Aria—
She had become slightly more normal.
Her extra organs were dissolving into dust, one by one.
I realized what was happening. "Remember her! Jessie! Aria is disappearing!"
"Aria! Her name is Aria!"
It must have been—masses of users adding Aria's ID.
Though I didn't know why we needed to remember her name.
But Jessie and I kept chanting it until Aria's entire body turned to dust.
Then we stopped.
Only then did I understand what I needed to remember wasn't Aria.
It was that we had won.
30
Jessie and I stumbled out of the academic building, leaning on each other.
It was well past three.
But the dreaded siren never sounded again.
Outside, the sun shone bright. Beyond the campus, traffic hummed as usual.
Everything looked perfectly normal.
Jessie and I exchanged a look, then silently opened the Yi Nian app.
The Administrator had posted a new message.
[This round of testing is complete. 67 users passed.]
[The next testing period is TBD. During the interim, users may use forum posting, item exchange, and other features.]
[Each testing period, the app will offer an "Account Deletion" option. Deleted users will have all app-related memories erased.]
Finally, the Administrator repeated the original rules.
[Do not accept anyone's friend request.]
[Do not expose your account ID in any setting.]
[Do not view the Administrator's social feed.]
31
"Are you going to delete your account?"
I asked Jessie. "It says they just erase your memories."
Jessie looked conflicted.
After a while, she said, "I'll think about it. You?"
Me?
I just felt an aching emptiness I couldn't name.
So I shook my head. "I don't know."
After all, I'd only survived by pure luck.
Who knew what rules the next round would bring—or whether I could figure them out in time?
32
So I kept putting off deleting my account, day after day.
Until three months later, I pulled out my phone and found a message from Jessie.
She wrote: "I've decided to delete. Once my memories are gone, don't bring any of this up with me again, okay?"
I replied: "Okay."
Jessie asked: "What about you?"
I went quiet.
For over twenty years, I'd lived an ordinary, unremarkable life.
The only time it had ever been terrifying was during that test.
I thought about it—that experience had a strange satisfaction to it, like solving an impossibly hard exam.
I really was a product of the education system.
I chuckled at myself, not planning to reply to Jessie.
But when my screen went dark, the lock screen lit up with a notification from the Yi Nian app.
It said: "Sister."
I thought I was seeing things.
But when I unlocked my phone, the message inbox was empty. No one had messaged me.
Must have been my eyes.
I muttered a complaint and was about to head back to the dorm.
Then I remembered someone I'd forgotten.
A person.
A shiver ran through me at my own outlandish thought.
But I tapped open the Administrator's avatar anyway.
The Administrator's profile picture—once a cold gray cloud—had changed to the silhouette of a boy.
Was there actually a human running this thing?
Before I could puzzle it out, my entire body went still.
From the message list, the Administrator's last message was still the announcement from three months ago.
But when I opened the chat, I saw:
"The Administrator has recalled a message."
Just seconds ago.
What... did that mean?
I had no idea, so I went to check the forum.
The forum was in chaos.
Oddly, no one else seemed to have received the Administrator's recalled message.
What had them in an uproar was that the Administrator had posted a status update on the forum for the first time—instead of in the social feed.
Users from all over the country, and even international ones who'd participated in multiple tests, were debating what the Administrator's post meant.
It was the first time any message had appeared on the public forum rather than the private social feed.
Curious, I scrolled to the post that already had tens of thousands of comments.
It was very short. Just five characters.
"I will protect you."
33
It was a strange post.
Some people said it was a clue for the next test—a password.
Others said there were multiple Administrators, and one of them might have gone through their own test and posted.
But I felt something else.
Something that actually gave me a sense of safety.
Inexplicably, it filled me with resolve.
To cement my absurd and audacious decision, I messaged Jessie.
I wrote: "I'm not deleting my account. I'll join the next test."
Jessie was silent for a long time before replying: "What test? What are you deleting? Babe, did you send this to the wrong person?"
Seeing that Jessie had already lost her memories, my heart sank a little.
I typed back: "Hehe, wrong person."
She said: "You're impossible. Don't go downloading sketchy apps—we're about to start our internships!"
"Whatever, you worry too much."
"What do you mean? How are you so carefree all of a sudden? Internships are important!"
I was about to reply when a new announcement from the Administrator popped up.
[The next test will begin in three days. Content: recruitment testing. Current users may participate.]
So the previous rounds had just been recruitment.
I froze for a moment, then closed the app.
Jessie was still rambling.
"Finding a good internship helps with job hunting later! Plus, boyfriends and all that—you can't stay carefree forever! We're about to have our last supper together. I just want you to have an easier, happier life."
I couldn't help laughing. I typed back: "Okay, okay. I found a really exciting internship."
Jessie sent a string of furious emoji.
"What? What is it? Don't get scammed! What are you thinking?"
I bought an ice cream and walked down the tree-lined campus road, smiling.
"Just a passing thought."