“Nobody inside move!”
The moment the voice outside fell, Lin Zhekai’s first reaction was to step back.
Chen Yaoting, however, was still standing in front of the computer.
NEXT HOST.
The next host.
Those two words seemed to burn directly into his mind.
Before he could fully understand them, he heard the man in the white coat mutter a curse.
“Faster than I expected.”
“What do we do now?” Lin Zhekai asked.
The man didn’t answer. He hurried to the server wall and pressed a button hidden behind a metal panel.
Click.
An entire row of lights on the right side of the room suddenly went out.
A moment later, the wall gave off a heavy mechanical grinding sound.
A metal panel that had looked perfectly sealed slowly retracted inward.
Behind it was a narrow maintenance passage.
“Go in.”
Chen Yaoting frowned.
“What about you?”
“I’m staying.”
“You’re not leaving?”
The man in the white coat glanced at him.
“I was never going to be able to leave.”
The sound of a keycard being swiped came from outside.
The first time.
Failure.
The second time.
Still a failure.
After the third attempt, someone began knocking on the door.
“Dr. Xu, open the door.”
The man in the white coat’s expression darkened instantly.
Chen Yaoting caught the name.
“Dr. Xu?”
The man ignored him and shoved both of them toward the passage.
“Once you’re out, follow the pipes all the way to the end. Turn left. When you see a red door, go out.”
Lin Zhekai suddenly asked, “Your surname is Xu?”
The man paused for a moment.
Someone outside called again.
“Dr. Xu Zhiming, we know you’re in there.”
Lin Zhekai’s expression changed.
“What’s your relationship with Xu Mingzhou?”
This time, the man finally turned around.
“My brother.”
Chen Yaoting and Lin Zhekai froze at the same time.
A louder impact came from outside the door.
Xu Zhiming looked as though he no longer had time to worry about their reaction.
“If you want to get out alive, hurry.”
“Wait.” Chen Yaoting stared at him. “Your brother isn’t dead?”
“His body is dead.”
“Then what did you mean when you said he wanted to switch Gu Chengyue back?”
Xu Zhiming looked at him.
“Because only his body died.”
The next second, the lock was forcibly broken.
Xu Zhiming shoved the maintenance door closed.
Through the last remaining crack, Chen Yaoting saw several people in black uniforms rush into the room.
The person in front wasn’t security.
It was Ms. Shen.
The first thing she said after entering was, “Dr. Xu, where are they?”
The panel sealed shut completely.
Darkness.
Chen Yaoting pressed his back against the cold metal, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
Through the thin wall, he could still hear the voices outside.
Xu Zhiming said, “Who?”
Ms. Shen wasn’t fooled.
“Chen Yaoting and Lin Zhekai.”
“I didn’t see them.”
“The security cameras did.”
Several seconds of silence passed.
Then Ms. Shen’s voice turned colder than usual.
“You know the consequences of leaking host data.”
“I know.”
“And the transfer records.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Xu Zhiming didn’t answer.
Ms. Shen spoke again.
“What happened with your brother is over.”
This time, Xu Zhiming’s voice rose noticeably.
“Over?”
“You killed a twenty-seven-year-old man, left his consciousness in the system for three years, and then tell me it’s over?”
Inside the maintenance passage, Chen Yaoting and Lin Zhekai stopped at the same time.
His consciousness had remained in the system for three years.
That sentence suddenly connected some of the scattered pieces from before.
Lin Zhekai lowered his voice.
“Keep moving.”
Chen Yaoting didn’t move.
He still wanted to listen.
Outside, Ms. Shen said, “Xu Mingzhou’s case was an accident.”
“That’s what you say every time.”
“He signed a full-transfer consent form.”
“He signed up for a high-paying experience, not permanent surrender.”
“Under the contract’s definition at the time, the two—”
“Don’t talk to me about the contract!”
Bang!
It sounded as though someone had slammed a hand on the table.
Xu Zhiming’s voice was heavy with anger.
“He did it the first time and got NT$60 million.”
“The second time, you said he’d get another NT$100 million just for extending it twelve hours.”
“The third time, you directly asked whether he was willing to make a permanent transfer.”
“He refused.”
“Then six months later, you called him back anyway.”
“Because Gu Chengyue was dying.”
Chen Yaoting stopped in the passage.
Gu Chengyue.
Him again.
Ms. Shen was silent for several seconds.
“You don’t have the complete records.”
“I do.”
“If you did, you’d know we didn’t force that transfer.”
“Then why did he die?”
There was no immediate answer from outside.
Finally, Ms. Shen said only, “Sync collapse.”
Xu Zhiming let out a cold laugh.
“Then why is his consciousness still there?”
This time, there was complete silence.
Chen Yaoting suddenly felt someone grab his arm.
Lin Zhekai pulled him forward.
“Move.”
“Just a little longer.”
“Keep listening and we’ll both be captured.”
The two of them could only continue through the narrow maintenance passage.
There were no lights inside.
They could only use their phones for illumination.
The passage was less than two meters high, with thick pipes running along both sides.
After walking about fifty meters, they reached a fork.
“Left,” Lin Zhekai said.
“Dr. Xu told us to go out when we saw a red door.”
They continued on.
Faint metallic impacts echoed from behind them.
Someone had found the maintenance passage.
“Hurry.”
They started running.
The red door appeared soon after.
Lin Zhekai pushed it first.
Locked.
“Damn it.”
Chen Yaoting rushed over.
There was a mechanical switch beside the door.
He pulled it straight down.
Beep.
The red light turned green.
The door opened.
Outside was an underground parking garage.
But not the level they had entered through.
This was deeper underground.
And it was packed with vehicles.
Black SUVs.
Ambulances.
And several unmarked vans.
“Which way?” Lin Zhekai looked left and right.
Chen Yaoting spotted an exit sign in the distance.
“There.”
They had barely taken a few steps when voices came from the direction of the elevators.
“They went down!”
The two of them immediately ran.
Lin Zhekai was older, and his speed was obviously a little slower.
For the first time, Chen Yaoting felt how useful this body really was.
His lungs weren’t burning.
His legs were powerful.
His steps were light.
But the thought had barely appeared before he found it bitterly ironic.
No wonder Gu Chengyue was willing to spend NT$680 million.
When they reached the other end of the parking garage, another roll-up door appeared ahead.
It was closed.
There was no button beside it.
Lin Zhekai cursed.
“We’re sealed in.”
The footsteps behind them drew closer and closer.
At least four or five people.
Chen Yaoting looked around.
Suddenly, he spotted an electric utility cart parked in the corner.
The key was still in it.
“Get on.”
“You know how to drive?”
“How hard can it be?”
He jumped straight into the driver’s seat.
Lin Zhekai sat beside him.
Chen Yaoting twisted the power switch.
The cart emitted an electronic alert.
Someone shouted from behind them.
“Stop!”
Chen Yaoting pressed the pedal all the way down.
The little cart lurched forward.
It wasn’t fast, but the basement was narrow, which made it easy to weave through.
He plowed through two traffic cones.
Then steered around a parking pillar.
At last, he spotted a ramp leading upward on the right.
“This way!”
The two of them charged up it.
The security guards could only chase after them.
The little cart reached B1.
Beyond that was an outdoor loading area.
There was no door at the exit.
Chen Yaoting drove straight out.
The sunlight outside was so harsh he could barely keep his eyes open.
He parked beside a row of shipping containers.
“Get off.”
They jumped down and ran along the edge of the industrial district.
Ten minutes later, they finally ducked into a narrow alley.
After confirming no one was following them, Lin Zhekai leaned against the wall and gasped for breath.
“You… your stamina is incredible.”
Chen Yaoting was breathing hard too, but nowhere near as badly.
“NT$680 million isn’t an estimate they pulled out of nowhere.”
After saying it, even he couldn’t quite laugh.
Lin Zhekai looked up.
“Do you still want to rent a second time?”
Chen Yaoting didn’t answer.
NT$300 million.
That number was still enormous.
So enormous that even after seeing what he had just seen, he couldn’t immediately say no.
“Let’s get the car first.”
“We can’t go back to where we parked.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll definitely be watching it.”
“What about my Porsche?”
Lin Zhekai looked at him.
“You’re seriously still thinking about the car?”
“That thing cost several million.”
“You have NT$150 million in your account.”
“That doesn’t mean I can just abandon a car.”
Lin Zhekai shook his head.
“You really are perfect for them.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Greedy.”
Chen Yaoting bristled.
“If you weren’t greedy, would you have rented yourself out?”
Lin Zhekai was left speechless.
In the end, all he could say was, “Let’s get out of this area first.”
They called a taxi.
Before getting in, Chen Yaoting took out Gu Chengyue’s letter to make sure it was still there.
It was.
Then he powered off his phone.
Lin Zhekai noticed.
“Afraid they can track you?”
“Wasn’t that what you said?”
“LEV probably already knows we got away.”
“So turning it off helps?”
“At least it removes one tracking source.”
They eventually went to a chain hotel.
They weren’t staying overnight.
They only rented a room for three hours to rest.
The moment they entered, Lin Zhekai pulled the curtains shut.
Chen Yaoting sat on the edge of the bed.
His mind was a mess.
The records they had seen on the third basement level.
Gu Chengyue—seven times.
Xu Mingzhou.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
ORIGINAL HOST: DECEASED.
And his own entry.
NEXT HOST.
For the first time, he began to seriously doubt it.
NT$150 million wasn’t just a rental fee.
It might really be what the introduction had called it.
A security deposit.
“You saw the seven records for Gu Chengyue, right?” Lin Zhekai asked.
“I did.”
“From 2019 to now.”
“Yeah.”
“I originally thought I was the first.”
“You weren’t.”
“And Xu Mingzhou was 2024.”
Chen Yaoting thought for a moment.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“You were in 2023, three years ago.”
“Right.”
“But yesterday, Gu Chengyue said the person he borrowed three years ago wasn’t you. It was Xu Mingzhou.”
“Right.”
“But Xu Mingzhou was in 2024.”
Lin Zhekai’s expression slowly changed.
“The timeline doesn’t match.”
“It’s not as simple as him remembering the wrong person.”
Chen Yaoting picked up the hotel notepad.
He began to write.
2019.
2020.
2021.
2023—Lin Zhekai.
2024—Xu Mingzhou.
2025.
2026—Chen Yaoting.
“Then who was 2025?” Lin Zhekai asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know about 2019, 2020, or 2021 either.”
“Didn’t Gu Chengyue say the third time was complete?”
Chen Yaoting took out the photo he had snapped yesterday.
“It says ‘third time complete’ in his hospital room.”
“But the system shows seven times.”
“Unless the third time he mentioned wasn’t the third experience.”
“Then the third what?”
Neither of them had an answer.
Chen Yaoting suddenly thought of something else.
“Dr. Xu said Xu Mingzhou’s consciousness is still in the system.”
“Yeah.”
“Then when you woke up halfway three years ago, the ‘you’ who went into the hallway—could it not have been some third person?”
Lin Zhekai looked at him.
“You mean Xu Mingzhou?”
“The timing doesn’t match.”
“Xu Mingzhou didn’t enter the system until 2024.”
“Right.”
Chen Yaoting frowned.
“So yours was someone even earlier.”
“That means there were other people before Xu Mingzhou.”
The room suddenly fell silent.
If consciousness could remain in LEV’s system.
And there was more than one of them.
Then the Life Experience Program wasn’t simply an exchange between two people.
It was more like a… container.
Every synchronization could leave something behind.
“You suddenly knew Japanese three years ago,” Chen Yaoting said.
“Right.”
“Gu Chengyue doesn’t know Japanese.”
“At least not that fluently.”
“Then it might have belonged to someone else.”
Lin Zhekai’s expression grew uglier by the second.
“Do you have anything now that doesn’t belong to you?”
The question made Chen Yaoting stop.
“Not that I know of.”
“Really?”
“I’ve only been awake for a few hours.”
“Think carefully.”
Chen Yaoting leaned back against the headboard.
He closed his eyes.
His sense of taste?
He didn’t know.
Habits?
Nothing.
Language?
His English was still terrible.
He was just about to say no when an image suddenly flashed through his mind.
Very briefly.
A wooden table.
A bowl of hot soup.
Snow falling outside the window.
Someone speaking Japanese.
Chen Yaoting’s eyes flew open.
“What is it?” Lin Zhekai asked.
“Nothing.”
“What did you just think of?”
“An image.”
“What kind?”
He described it.
Lin Zhekai immediately asked, “Have you been to Japan?”
“No.”
“Seen something similar in a video?”
“Maybe.”
“Do you remember what the Japanese sentence was?”
Chen Yaoting tried hard to recall it.
The strange thing was that he had no idea why he understood it.
The sentence’s general meaning was:
“Don’t go back today.”
He told Lin Zhekai what it meant.
Lin Zhekai stared at him.
“You know Japanese?”
“No.”
“You translated that correctly.”
Chen Yaoting’s heart began to race.
“How do you know?”
“Because I understand Japanese.”
“Maybe I watched too much anime when I was younger.”
“Then say the original sentence.”
Chen Yaoting opened his mouth.
No sound came out.
He knew only the meaning.
He didn’t know how to pronounce the sentence.
That only made Lin Zhekai more certain.
“This isn’t something you learned.”
“Then what is it?”
“Residue.”
Chen Yaoting suddenly grew irritated.
“Don’t make everything sound like a horror story.”
“That’s what I told myself three years ago.”
“And what happened?”
Lin Zhekai didn’t answer right away.
Only after several seconds did he say, “For six months, I had the same dream forty-seven times.”
“What dream?”
“A traditional Japanese house.”
“Winter.”
“Snow falling outside the window.”
Chen Yaoting went completely still.
Lin Zhekai slowly added, “There was a bowl of miso soup on the table.”
The sound of the air conditioner suddenly became unnaturally clear.
The image Chen Yaoting had just seen.
It was almost identical.
“You’re making this up, right?”
“I’m not.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Because I thought it was just my own side effect.”
“Now that you’ve seen it too, you know it isn’t.”
They looked at each other.
For the first time, neither of them made a joke.
That meant the same memory that belonged to neither of them had entered two different renters, one after the other.
And the only thing they had in common was Gu Chengyue.
Or LEV’s system.
“Whose memory is it?” Chen Yaoting asked.
Lin Zhekai shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Xu Mingzhou?”
“If he didn’t enter the system until 2024, he couldn’t have appeared in my head three years ago.”
“Then it belonged to someone earlier.”
The two fell silent.
Just then, Lin Zhekai’s old phone suddenly rang.
The one whose number Gu Chengyue knew.
They both looked over.
The screen displayed:
Unknown number.
Lin Zhekai didn’t answer.
It stopped after the sixth ring.
Ten seconds later, a text message arrived.
It contained only one sentence:
“Don’t trust Xu Zhiming.”
Chen Yaoting frowned.
“Who sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
A second message arrived the next moment.
“He didn’t tell you that his brother volunteered.”
A third.
“He also didn’t tell you that Xu Mingzhou is still alive.”
Lin Zhekai snatched up the phone.
“It just said the original host was dead.”
Chen Yaoting stared at the message.
“Maybe it meant the consciousness.”
“Or the body.”
“Then what does ‘still alive’ mean?”
A fourth message arrived.
“If you want to see him, tonight at nine.”
Beneath it was an address.
Da’an District, Taipei.
A private club.
The final line read:
“Chen Yaoting must come alone.”
Lin Zhekai immediately said, “Don’t go.”
“You don’t even know who sent it.”
“That’s exactly why you can’t go.”
“He says Xu Mingzhou is alive.”
“Or he’s trying to lure you back.”
“Then I have even more reason to find out.”
“You’ve already seen the internal records.”
“So?”
“So you’re not an ordinary participant anymore.”
Chen Yaoting looked at the address.
The second NT$300 million contract.
Gu Chengyue.
Xu Mingzhou.
Xu Zhiming.
Ms. Shen.
And the “third person” who didn’t exist in the contract.
This was no longer something he could pretend not to see and then simply go home and enjoy spending NT$150 million.
Especially NEXT HOST.
Those two words were still lodged in his mind.
“I’m going.”
Lin Zhekai frowned.
“Are you crazy?”
“If I don’t go, I’ll never stop wondering.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“It says I have to come alone.”
“You’re seriously going to follow instructions from an anonymous text?”
“I’m not going there to get myself killed.”
Chen Yaoting powered his phone back on.
Less than ten seconds after it restarted, Ms. Shen called.
The two exchanged a look.
“Answer it,” Lin Zhekai said.
Chen Yaoting tapped the screen.
“Hello.”
Ms. Shen’s voice was very calm.
So calm that it was as if she hadn’t chased him through the third basement level at all.
“Mr. Chen.”
“What?”
“Are you safe right now?”
“Perfectly safe.”
“Is Lin Zhekai with you?”
Chen Yaoting glanced at him.
“No.”
Ms. Shen paused for half a second.
“Please don’t have any further contact with him.”
“Why?”
“After his synchronization three years ago, he suffered severe memory confusion.”
Lin Zhekai heard that and gave a cold laugh.
Chen Yaoting asked, “What about Xu Mingzhou?”
The other end of the line instantly went silent.
This time, it lasted a full three seconds.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“You answer first.”
“That isn’t information you should have access to.”
“I saw NEXT HOST written next to my name in your system.”
This time, Ms. Shen didn’t immediately deny it.
“That isn’t what you think it means.”
“Then what does it mean?”
“Candidate for a subsequent experience.”
“Not permanent transfer?”
“No.”
“Is Xu Mingzhou dead?”
Ms. Shen paused.
“Yes.”
“Is his consciousness still in your system?”
The silence lasted even longer.
Chen Yaoting already knew the answer.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Mr. Chen.”
For the first time, Ms. Shen’s tone carried clear exhaustion.
“Some technical issues are difficult to explain precisely in ordinary language.”
“Then explain it in a way I can understand.”
“Human consciousness isn’t a complete file.”
“Synchronization doesn’t actually move a soul from one place to another.”
“What we transmit is a model of neural activity, personality responses, and memory indexes.”
“So?”
“Residue doesn’t mean a complete person is still alive inside the system.”
Chen Yaoting immediately thought of the snowy night.
The miso soup.
The Japanese sentence.
“But residue can enter the next person’s brain.”
The other end of the line fell silent again.
“Has it already happened to you?” Ms. Shen asked.
She had asked it too quickly.
Chen Yaoting’s heart sank.
“You knew this could happen?”
“Extremely rare cases.”
“Is Lin Zhekai one of them?”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you keep doing this?”
“Because most residue disappears naturally.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
Ms. Shen didn’t answer.
“What happens if it doesn’t?”
“We handle it.”
“How?”
“Memory-blocking treatment.”
“You wipe people’s brains?”
“No.”
“Then can I refuse the treatment?”
“Of course.”
That answer surprised him.
“You’re not going to force me?”
“No one has ever forced you.”
Voluntary again.
It was always voluntary.
Ms. Shen continued, “But I strongly recommend that you return to the medical center now.”
“I’m not going back.”
“Then at least don’t go to that address tonight.”
Chen Yaoting sat bolt upright.
“How do you know about it?”
Lin Zhekai’s expression changed too.
Ms. Shen didn’t try to hide it.
“That text message wasn’t the first.”
“What do you mean?”
“Every person previously listed as NEXT HOST…”
“They all received similar invitations.”
Chen Yaoting tightened his grip on the phone.
“Who sent them?”
“We don’t know.”
“What happens if they go?”
“Some never came back.”
The room fell silent.
Ms. Shen continued, “Mr. Chen.”
“You have NT$150 million in your account right now.”
“The contract is complete.”
“You can go home.”
“Buy a house.”
“Buy a car.”
“Travel.”
“Live the life you originally wanted.”
“Don’t keep digging.”
Those words struck exactly where Chen Yaoting wanted them to.
For one moment, he was genuinely tempted.
That was right.
Why investigate?
He had already won.
His life had turned around.
All he had to do was walk away.
But the next second, he thought of the unfamiliar snowy night in his mind.
Then he thought of Gu Chengyue’s letter.
Day five. I woke up once.
But the person inside wasn’t me.
And finally, the red words on the screen.
NEXT HOST.
“One last question,” Chen Yaoting said.
“Ask.”
“The NT$300 million deal.”
“Gu Chengyue was going to rent me for fourteen days, right?”
“Originally.”
“Originally?”
“Mr. Gu canceled it today.”
Chen Yaoting froze.
“Why?”
“His condition worsened.”
“So he’s not renting me anymore?”
“No.”
Ms. Shen’s voice dropped.
“He requested a permanent arrangement instead.”
Chen Yaoting went completely still.
“What does that mean?”
This time, Ms. Shen didn’t use any vague technical terminology.
She said it directly:
“Gu Chengyue offered NT$2 billion.”
“To buy the rest of your life.”