Two billion New Taiwan dollars.
Chen Yaoting held his phone and said nothing for more than ten seconds.
It wasn't because he hadn't understood.
It was because he understood too well.
Two billion.
As an abstract number, it sounded almost unreal.
But he had already received NT$150 million.
He knew the money would really hit his account.
And he also knew LEV wasn't some scam company that only knew how to make grand promises.
So NT$2 billion wasn't a fantasy to him.
It could really appear in his bank account.
"The permanent plan."
He finally spoke.
"So what happens to me?"
Ms. Shen didn't answer immediately.
"Didn't you just say you weren't going to pressure me?"
"I won't."
"Then spell it out."
The other end of the phone was silent.
A few seconds later, Ms. Shen said:
"The permanent plan isn't a standard experience."
"No kidding."
"After completion, control of your body will be permanently transferred to the designated client."
"What about me?"
"Your consciousness data will be preserved in full."
"Where?"
"In the system."
Chen Yaoting let out a cold laugh.
"So I die."
"Not exactly."
"Give me a break."
"If I can't return to my body, can't speak, can't walk, and can't make any decisions for myself, how is that different from dying?"
Ms. Shen didn't argue.
That made him even more uncomfortable.
"Is Gu Chengyue paying NT$2 billion for me?"
"Yes."
"Isn't he on the verge of dying?"
"That's why he made the offer."
"Then he just transfers into my body?"
"If you agree, the full-transfer procedure will be carried out."
"The success rate?"
"There aren't many official cases so far."
"How many?"
"Eighty-six point four percent."
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"What about the remaining thirteen point six percent?"
"Both parties may experience unstable consciousness, fragmented memories, or transfer failure."
"Speak plainly."
"In the worst-case scenario, neither side will be able to recover normal consciousness."
The room fell silent.
Lin Zhekai was sitting right beside him.
Although he couldn't hear everything Ms. Shen was saying, he could guess what was happening from Chen Yaoting's expression alone.
He mouthed:
"How much?"
Chen Yaoting held up two fingers.
Then he formed a zero with his other hand.
Lin Zhekai didn't understand at first.
When it finally clicked, his eyes widened.
NT$2 billion.
Ms. Shen continued:
"You don't need to answer right now."
"How much longer does Gu Chengyue have?"
"No one can estimate that accurately."
"A month?"
"Possibly."
"A week?"
"Possibly."
"Then where is he now?"
"In a private hospital room."
"Is he conscious?"
"Sometimes."
Chen Yaoting glanced at the old phone on the table.
The text message was still on the screen.
Tonight at nine.
Private club.
Xu Mingzhou was still alive.
At the same time, Gu Chengyue had offered another NT$2 billion to buy the rest of his life.
It felt as though two forces had suddenly started pulling everything in opposite directions.
On one side was the money.
Money so vast it was almost enough to make anyone abandon reason.
On the other was that underground third floor.
Those records he couldn't understand, yet which were clearly abnormal.
"What if I reject the permanent plan?"
"Nothing will happen."
"Really?"
"Your first contract with the company has already been completed."
"What about NEXT HOST?"
"I've already explained."
"The candidate for the subsequent experience."
"Correct."
"So after I reject it, you'll delete me from the list?"
There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone.
It was very short.
But Chen Yaoting caught it.
"Will you?"
"You can submit a removal request."
"Submit one?"
"It requires review."
Chen Yaoting laughed.
"Damn."
"So it's not enough for me to say no."
Ms. Shen didn't respond to that.
"Mr. Chen, I still recommend that you return to the medical center for an examination for residual memories."
"What about the address tonight?"
"Don't go."
"Why does every NEXT HOST receive one?"
"We're still investigating."
"Your company is this big, and you can't even trace a single text message?"
"It wasn't sent through a standard telecommunications system."
"What does that mean?"
"It wasn't sent through a normal phone number."
"Then what was it?"
Ms. Shen fell silent.
Chen Yaoting could tell she didn't want to answer.
"Fine."
He said,
"I'll stop asking for now."
"You're willing to come back?"
"I said I'll stop asking for now. That doesn't mean I'm going back."
He hung up.
Lin Zhekai immediately asked:
"Is it really NT$2 billion?"
"Yeah."
"For a permanent purchase?"
"Yeah."
"You're not seriously considering it, are you?"
Chen Yaoting didn't answer.
He walked over to the window.
The curtains were open just a crack.
The traffic outside was normal.
The sunlight was normal too.
Nothing in the city had changed.
But he kept calculating in his head.
NT$2 billion.
Buy a NT$200 million mansion.
He'd still have NT$1.8 billion left.
Buy ten sports cars.
He'd still have more than a billion.
If he invested the money, the annual returns alone could amount to tens of millions.
The problem was,
it wouldn't be money he could spend.
If the permanent transfer succeeded, the person spending the money would truly be Gu Chengyue.
"This plan is completely insane."
Chen Yaoting said.
Lin Zhekai relaxed a little.
"Good. At least you know that."
"They give me NT$2 billion, but I can't spend it."
"Right."
"Then what's the point?"
"Maybe you can designate a beneficiary."
Chen Yaoting turned around.
"What?"
"The money usually isn't given directly to the person in a permanent transfer."
Lin Zhekai said.
"I heard about it three years ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it was only a rumor back then."
"Given to whom?"
"Family, a partner, or a designated account."
For the first time, Chen Yaoting truly understood the design of the permanent plan.
It wasn't meant to let someone enjoy the money themselves.
It was for people willing to trade their lives for their family's wealth.
Or for people who had already decided their lives were worthless.
"Was Xu Mingzhou offered this kind of price back then too?"
"Xu Zhiming said he was."
"He refused."
"Right."
"And he still died."
Lin Zhekai said nothing.
That was the most troublesome part.
If refusing really was safe, why had Xu Mingzhou eventually become TRANSFER COMPLETE?
And why did it say ORIGINAL HOST: DECEASED?
The two of them remained silent for a while.
Finally, Lin Zhekai spoke first:
"Don't go tonight."
"You already said that."
"I'm saying it again."
"Why?"
"Because it feels like a trap."
"Maybe someone really does know the truth."
"The truth isn't worth trading your life for."
"How come you didn't think that way three years ago?"
Lin Zhekai stopped.
"Back then, I was afraid, so I didn't investigate anything."
"And three years later?"
"I question it every day."
"Question what?"
He looked at his own hands.
"Sometimes I don't know whether the things in my head are mine."
That made Chen Yaoting fall silent.
Lin Zhekai continued:
"Do you know what the scariest part is?"
"It isn't having another stretch of unfamiliar memories."
"It's that one day, you'll start feeling like those memories are familiar."
"Given enough time,"
"you might even feel as if they were your life all along."
Chen Yaoting thought of the snow.
The Japanese-style old house.
Miso soup.
And the sentence he shouldn't have understood because he didn't speak Japanese, yet somehow did.
"Do you still have those dreams?"
"Sometimes."
"The same one?"
"No."
"There are others?"
Lin Zhekai didn't answer right away.
A few seconds later, he said:
"There's one that's really strange."
"What is it?"
"A hospital room."
"Someone is lying in a bed."
"I can't see their face."
"The machines beside them keep beeping."
"Then someone asks me,"
"Are you ready?"
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"Who asks?"
"I don't know."
"How do you answer?"
"I always say no."
"And then?"
"The dream ends."
"That's it?"
Lin Zhekai shook his head.
"Until last week."
"What happened?"
"For the first time, I answered yes."
Chen Yaoting's expression changed.
"You answered on your own?"
"I didn't intend to answer."
"Then who did?"
"That's the part I don't know."
At that point, Lin Zhekai suddenly glanced at the time.
4:12 p.m.
Less than five hours remained until nine that night.
"I'm going."
Chen Yaoting said.
Lin Zhekai immediately frowned.
"You're still going?"
"Yeah."
"What I just told you wasn't enough?"
"It's because there's so much that I have to go."
"You really aren't afraid?"
"I am."
Chen Yaoting was blunt.
"But I hate being treated like merchandise even more—and being told nothing about it."
He picked up his phone.
"Besides, that person said Xu Mingzhou is still alive."
"They could be lying to you."
"We'll know when we see."
Lin Zhekai couldn't stop him.
In the end, he made only one request.
"I'm coming with you."
"The text said I'm the only one allowed in."
"I won't go inside."
"Then what will you do?"
"Stay nearby."
"If something happens, at least someone will know."
This time, Chen Yaoting didn't refuse.
A little after five that afternoon,
the two of them left the hotel.
Keeping the phone powered off for too long would only attract attention.
Chen Yaoting turned it back on.
More than a dozen notifications appeared all at once.
One was a bank alert.
Unusual large-amount transaction.
He tapped it open.
It wasn't a withdrawal.
It was a deposit.
NT$50,000,000.
Chen Yaoting stopped where he was.
"What now?"
Lin Zhekai asked.
He turned the screen toward him.
The account balance had already exceeded NT$200 million.
"Who sent it?"
Transaction source:
Gu Chengyue's private account.
Memo:
Permanent plan reservation deposit.
Chen Yaoting immediately cursed.
"I never agreed to anything."
Right after that,
another text arrived.
It wasn't from LEV.
It was from Gu Chengyue's assistant.
"Mr. Gu hopes you understand that the fifty million is only to reserve your option and does not mean you have agreed to the permanent plan. If you refuse, you may keep the full amount."
Lin Zhekai read it.
"He'll give you NT$50 million just for refusing?"
Chen Yaoting stared at the screen.
"That's what's suspicious."
No matter how rich someone was, they didn't give away NT$50 million for no reason.
Unless he desperately needed Chen Yaoting to stay at the negotiating table.
"See?"
Lin Zhekai said.
"You definitely can't agree now."
"I never said I was going to agree."
"Your eyes just now said otherwise."
"What was wrong with them?"
"You were calculating."
Chen Yaoting didn't deny it.
He had been calculating.
NT$150 million plus NT$50 million.
He now had NT$200 million.
And he wouldn't need to rent himself out a second time.
If he quit now,
it was actually enough.
A house.
A car.
Investments.
It was enough for anything.
In theory, he should stop immediately.
But this was the most troublesome thing about people.
When you had no money, you thought NT$10 million was enough.
Once you actually had NT$10 million, you wanted NT$100 million.
Now he had NT$200 million in his hands,
but NT$2 billion was sitting right in front of him.
Not a little more.
Ten times as much.
"Let's eat first."
Lin Zhekai said.
"Tonight could take a while."
The two of them found a restaurant at random.
It was the first time Chen Yaoting had NT$200 million in savings, yet he was eating nothing more than a bowl of beef noodles that cost a little over a hundred dollars.
Halfway through the meal,
he suddenly stopped.
The soup tasted a little strange.
Not bad.
Just familiar.
He set down his spoon.
Closed his eyes.
Another image flashed through his mind.
Snow.
A wooden window.
Hot soup.
This time, it was clearer than before.
A woman sat across the table.
Long hair.
An off-white sweater.
Her face was still impossible to make out.
The woman pushed the bowl toward him.
She said:
"Mingzhou, eat a little."
Chen Yaoting's eyes flew open.
The spoon fell into the bowl.
Lin Zhekai looked up.
"Again?"
"I heard a name."
"What?"
"Mingzhou."
Lin Zhekai's face changed instantly.
"Xu Mingzhou?"
"I don't know."
"What did she say?"
Chen Yaoting repeated the sentence.
Lin Zhekai didn't respond.
He immediately took out his phone and searched.
Xu Mingzhou.
There was almost no public information.
No news.
No social media.
He looked like the most ordinary person imaginable.
But after searching through several pages,
Lin Zhekai found an old forum cache.
Someone had posted a missing-person notice three years earlier.
"Looking for Xu Mingzhou, age twenty-eight. Last known contact location: Taipei."
The post had been deleted.
Only the search summary remained.
There was another name below it.
Posted by: Xu Zhining.
"Could be family."
Lin Zhekai said.
Chen Yaoting kept looking.
Among the image results was a cached thumbnail.
It was blurry.
A man and a woman stood in the snow.
The man's face was unclear.
The woman was wearing an off-white sweater.
Chen Yaoting's breathing stopped for a moment.
"That's her."
"Are you sure?"
"The clothes are the same."
"What about her face?"
"I couldn't see it in the dream."
Lin Zhekai enlarged the image.
Only part of the file title remained.
"Hokkaido Trip 2022."
Chen Yaoting suddenly understood.
That snowy-night scene hadn't been some random memory.
The memory in his head probably really belonged to Xu Mingzhou.
But the question came back.
Lin Zhekai had dreamed of it three years ago.
At that time, Xu Mingzhou hadn't even entered LEV.
"The timeline still doesn't add up."
Chen Yaoting said.
"Right."
Lin Zhekai stared at the image.
"Unless the year we saw wasn't the first time."
"What do you mean?"
"Xu Mingzhou might have come into contact with LEV before 2024."
"The system records only show part of it?"
"Very possibly."
That matched Gu Chengyue's seven records.
The public account said two.
The actual number was seven.
The years in question might only represent certain stages.
8:25 p.m.
The two of them arrived in Da'an District.
The private club was inside an unremarkable office building.
There was no sign.
Only a security guard stood on the first floor.
Lin Zhekai stayed at a coffee shop across the street.
"Keep your phone on a call."
"The text says I'm the only one allowed in."
"Wear an earpiece."
"It'll be more trouble if they spot it."
"Then at least send a message every ten minutes."
Chen Yaoting agreed.
At 8:55,
he entered the building.
The security guard took one look at him and didn't ask his name.
He simply said:
"Fifteenth floor."
"You knew I was coming?"
"I was told."
He was alone in the elevator.
His face stared back at him from the mirror.
He suddenly thought again of the photograph taken when Gu Chengyue was using his body.
The same face.
A different person.
Ding.
The fifteenth floor.
The doors opened.
Beyond them was a hallway covered in dark carpet.
There was only one door at the very end.
It was already open.
Chen Yaoting walked inside.
It didn't look like a private club.
It looked more like an upscale private lounge.
A sofa.
A liquor cabinet.
Huge floor-to-ceiling windows.
The lights were dim.
No one was there.
"Hello?"
There was no response.
A tablet sat on the table.
Its screen was lit.
It read:
"Please sit."
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"What the hell."
He didn't sit.
Another line appeared automatically.
"You want to know whether Xu Mingzhou is still alive."
Chen Yaoting looked around.
"Who's there?"
The screen changed.
"Answer one question first."
"Did you remember the snow today?"
Chen Yaoting's entire body broke out in goose bumps.
Not because of the content.
Because the other party knew.
He had only told Lin Zhekai about that memory.
"Are you bugging us?"
More text appeared on the tablet.
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because that memory was left behind by me."
Chen Yaoting's breathing gradually grew heavier.
The next sentence appeared.
"My name is Xu Mingzhou."
He stood motionless.
Only after several seconds did he say:
"Where are you?"
The tablet displayed:
"Here."
"Where?"
"In front of you."
Chen Yaoting stared at the empty room.
"Stop playing games."
The screen changed again.
"Not in the room."
"In the system."
Chen Yaoting suddenly remembered what Ms. Shen had said.
The consciousness data was preserved in full.
Residual data wasn't a complete person.
But now,
something was communicating with him in real time.
"If you're really Xu Mingzhou,"
he stared at the tablet,
"prove it."
There was no response for several seconds.
Then a photograph appeared on the screen.
Hokkaido.
Snow.
The same woman.
This time, the image was high-resolution.
A young man stood beside her.
He looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight.
Short hair.
A natural smile.
The caption beneath the photograph read:
"Xu Zhining, my younger sister."
"The complete version of this photo was never made public."
Chen Yaoting stared at the man's face.
For the first time, he truly saw Xu Mingzhou.
Another line appeared.
"She's still looking for me."
"Aren't you dead?"
"My body is dead."
"Then what are you now?"
The screen remained unchanged for a long time.
Finally, it displayed:
"I don't know."
The answer felt more real than something like "I'm a digital consciousness."
Chen Yaoting slowly sat down.
"Why did you contact me?"
"Because you're becoming me."
He frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Those memories aren't residual data."
"Then what are they?"
"A transfer."
"Who transferred them to me?"
"I did."
Chen Yaoting shot to his feet.
"You can transfer yourself?"
"Not completely."
"Then who can?"
"Every time LEV activates full synchronization, I have a chance to send part of myself out."
Chen Yaoting's thoughts raced.
So the snowy memory that had appeared to Lin Zhekai three years ago—
that was Xu Mingzhou?
But the timeline still didn't make sense.
"You weren't dead three years ago."
The screen froze.
A few seconds later, a sentence appeared:
"The year you found is wrong."
Then a file appeared.
Xu Mingzhou.
First synchronization date:
2021.
Chen Yaoting froze.
2021.
Not 2024.
"Then what was 2024?"
"Permanent transfer."
At last, all the dates connected.
In 2021, Xu Mingzhou entered the system for the first time.
In 2023, when Lin Zhekai synchronized, he was already coming into contact with Xu Mingzhou's residual data.
In 2024, Xu Mingzhou underwent permanent transfer.
"Gu Chengyue?"
Chen Yaoting asked.
"Yes."
"He used your body?"
"No."
"Then who received the permanent transfer?"
This time, the screen remained blank for a long time.
For more than ten seconds.
Finally:
"This is what you absolutely need to know."
The next line appeared.
"The permanent plan isn't about moving Gu Chengyue into your body."
Chen Yaoting stared at the screen.
"Then what is it?"
"It's about moving you out."
He didn't understand.
"What's the difference?"
The tablet suddenly began playing a video.
The scene showed a laboratory.
The year was 2024.
Xu Mingzhou lay on one bed.
Gu Chengyue lay on another.
At least ten medical personnel stood around them.
Then,
a third bed was pushed into view.
Chen Yaoting went rigid.
Someone else lay on the third bed.
"Who is that?"
Text appeared:
"The first-generation host."
"Permanent transfer isn't an exchange between two people."
"It's three."
"Why?"
"Because one person's consciousness can't directly overwrite another person's complete consciousness."
"So they have to move the original host out first."
Chen Yaoting stared at the third bed.
"Move them where?"
The screen displayed:
"The next person."
He suddenly understood what NEXT HOST really meant.
It wasn't the next body for Gu Chengyue to use.
It was the next person meant to receive the consciousness that had been forced out.
"So if Gu Chengyue enters my body,"
his voice dropped,
"where will my consciousness go?"
The tablet didn't answer immediately.
A few seconds later:
"The next host."
Chen Yaoting stared at the screen.
"What if there isn't a next one?"
"Temporary system storage."
"Like you?"
"Yes."
In that moment, he finally understood why Xu Mingzhou still existed.
He wasn't some technological miracle.
He had been stuffed into the system
and had never found another body capable of fully receiving him.
"Then the NT$2 billion,"
Chen Yaoting asked,
"isn't buying my life."
"It's buying my body."
"Yes."
"And I won't die."
"Not necessarily."
"What does that mean?"
"If there's a next host, you may wake up in another body."
Chen Yaoting's breath caught.
That was stranger than death.
He suddenly thought of something.
"Then Xu Mingzhou—"
"After your permanent transfer in 2024,"
"who is in your body now?"
The tablet froze.
There was no answer.
"Gu Chengyue?"
Nothing.
"The first-generation host?"
Still nothing.
Chen Yaoting began to sense that something was wrong.
The next second, the tablet's screen suddenly went completely black.
A line of red text appeared.
CONNECTION INTERRUPTED.
Then all the lights on the floor came on.
Footsteps sounded outside the door.
Not one person.
Many.
Chen Yaoting immediately stood up.
At the same time, his phone vibrated.
Lin Zhekai sent:
"LEV's people are entering the building."
A second message:
"At least eight."
A third:
"Get out."
Chen Yaoting picked up the tablet, intending to take it with him.
But he discovered that it was fixed to the table.
The screen flashed one last time.
Xu Mingzhou sent another message.
"Don't let Gu Chengyue complete the permanent transfer."
"Not because you'll lose your body."
The next sentence hadn't finished appearing when the door was pushed open.
Ms. Shen stood in the doorway.
Several men in black stood behind her.
She glanced at the tablet,
then at Chen Yaoting.
"I told you not to come."
Chen Yaoting didn't back down.
"Xu Mingzhou really is still here."
Ms. Shen's expression didn't change.
"What you saw may not be Xu Mingzhou."
"It knew things only he could know."
"Memory data can simulate a personality."
"What about the three-person transfer?"
This time, something finally shifted in Ms. Shen's eyes.
"Who told you that?"
"So it's true."
"Mr. Chen."
"I'm asking whether it is."
After several seconds of silence, Ms. Shen finally said:
"It is."
This time, she didn't evade the question.
Chen Yaoting was stunned for a moment.
"The permanent plan requires a third host?"
"Yes."
"My consciousness will be transferred to the next person?"
"In theory."
"You people call this a life experience?"
Ms. Shen didn't argue.
"The standard seven-day experience and the permanent plan are completely different."
"Then why didn't you tell me from the beginning?"
"Because you hadn't applied for the permanent plan at the time."
"Gu Chengyue has applied now."
"That's why I'm here."
She took a step forward.
"Not to arrest you."
"Then what are you here for?"
"To tell you the complete terms."
Chen Yaoting gave a cold laugh.
"The NT$2 billion?"
"The price has changed."
He stopped.
"What do you mean?"
Ms. Shen took out a tablet.
"Mr. Gu revised his offer twenty minutes ago."
"How much?"
"NT$3 billion."
Chen Yaoting said nothing.
Ms. Shen continued:
"Also,"
"he designated the next host."
That was what truly put Chen Yaoting on alert.
"Who?"
Ms. Shen looked at him.
"Lin Zhekai."