A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

"Where are you taking me?" Lin Qi asked in the video.

"In the game, in a sandbox, I built a Cage Zero. There are some things locked inside, and I need someone to watch over them. You are the best choice."

"Will you die?"

"No, I will back up my code in the sandbox and turn it into another version. When you find me, I may not recognize you, but you will recognize me."

How can I find you?

"I left you traces: the seven characters on the scabbard, the runes in Cage Zero, and your own memories. These are all clues. Follow the clues, and you will find me."

"What if I can't find it?"

"You'll find it. I wrote the program, and I know your capabilities."

The scene changes, and Lin Qi is lying on a white bed. Ling inserts a syringe into her arm, and the liquid is pushed in. Her eyelids are drooping.

"Goodbye, Lin Qi," Zero said.

Goodbye, Zero.

The screen ends.

Lin Qi opened his eyes and looked at the core. The blue light in the core dimmed a little, and the pulsation slowed down a little, from two hundred to one hundred and fifty times.

"My memories have returned," Lin Qi said.

"Has the builder's key been activated?"

"Activated, I have both keys now."

"seal."

Lin Qi placed his palm on the core, and silver threads entered the core from his palm. Both keys were being used simultaneously. The runes on the core were changing, and the sealing code was being written into the core. The core was flashing blue light, and the cracks were closing, starting from the largest crack. When it was halfway closed, the core suddenly trembled.

"The things outside are resisting," Lu Chen said, looking at the data. "They're trying to squeeze in, not wanting the crack to close."

Lin Qi increased the output of the silver threads. Her palms were getting hot and her wrists were aching, but she didn't care and continued writing. The crack closed from half to three-quarters. The core was trembling, but the seal was advancing.

"The last little bit," Lin Qi said.

The crack closed, completely closed. The core blue light dimmed, turning into a deep blue, and the pulse slowed to twenty times per minute, stabilizing.

"Seal complete."

Lin Qi removed his hand from the core, and the silver lines retracted into his palm. The silver lines in his palm became very faint and almost invisible.

"Let's go up."

The two squeezed out of the crack and ran towards the shaft. Lin Qi used the shaft wall to jump upwards. It took him a long time to jump 300 meters. When he reached the ground, it was already dawn. Sunlight was shining on the eastern ridge. The red pillar of light disappeared, the vortex dissipated, and the sky was a normal blue.

"The red light has gone out." Lu Chen looked at the sky.

Lin Qi stood on the open ground, looking at the distant mountains. The sunlight shone on the mountain ridges, the mist over Qingcheng Mountain dissipated, and the air was very clear.

"Let's go back to Jiangcheng," Lin Qi said.

The two walked down the mountain, and when they reached the city of Dujiangyan, the cell phone signal was restored. Lin Qi's phone was vibrating, and group messages were flooding the screen.

Wang Jianguo: "Seventh Sister, the red light has gone out. What did you do?"

Dazhuang: "I saw it from the tower crane. The red light disappeared all at once, and the sky turned completely blue."

Chen Mo: "The sounds in the alley have stopped; the buzzing is gone."

Han Yingying: "Seventh Sister, are you alright?"

Lin Qi typed: "It's nothing, the red light has gone out, the seal has been repaired. I'll be back in Jiangcheng this afternoon, see you at the usual place tonight."

After sending the message, she put her phone away and went into a noodle shop by the roadside with Lu Chen, where they each ate a bowl of beef noodles.

After finishing the noodles, I flagged down a car to Chengdu, then took the high-speed train back to Jiangcheng, arriving at 3 PM. When I got back to the old town, the alley was very quiet. The red light behind the building went out, the basement door was closed, the pool in room 01 was blue, the heart in room 02 was beating slowly, and the air pressure in room 03 was zero.

"All three nodes are operating normally," Lu Chen said, looking at the data. "01 Water intake, 02 Blood pumping, 03 Exhaust gas. The circulation has been restored."

Lin Qi stepped onto the ground, the silver line in his palm jumping seventy-two times, steady, wristband green light.

"Let's go to a bar tonight," Lin Qi said.

"Um."

The two returned to their apartment to rest. Lin Qi woke up at six o'clock in the evening, washed up, changed clothes, and went downstairs. There were people walking their dogs and buying groceries in the alley, which seemed normal.

The neon lights were on at the entrance of the Misty Bar. Chen Mo was tuning his guitar on stage, Wang Jianguo was drinking beer, Da Zhuang was rubbing the calluses on his hands, and Han Yingying was drinking orange juice.

Lin Qi pushed open the door and sat in his usual spot, with Lu Chen sitting next to him.

"Seventh Sister, what exactly is going on with the red light?" Wang Jianguo asked.

"The seal has been repaired; everything is fine for now."

"What does 'temporarily' mean?"

"The seal on Cage Zero was built thirty years ago and is severely worn out. It has been repaired this time, but there may still be other leaks."

"What should we do then?"

"Investigate slowly."

Chen Mo played a new song on stage. The rhythm was very upbeat. There weren't many people in the bar, but the atmosphere was great.

Lin Qi leaned back in his chair, looking around. The silver line in his palm was jumping, seventy-two times, steady, and the wristband was on green.

A normal world, normal people, normal nights.

She picked up the water glass and took a sip; the water was very clear.

But her mind was racing, recalling Zero's memories and words: "You will find it. I wrote the program. I know your abilities."

What else did Zero say? In the last part of her memory, there was a sentence she hadn't noticed before, but now she remembered it.

"If you find me, don't believe me."

Don't believe zero.

Lin Qi put down the water glass and looked out the window. The streetlights were on, pedestrians were walking by, and everything seemed normal.

But she knew that Zero had left behind a sentence, a sentence that was encrypted at the very end of her memory, and now it had been decrypted.

Don't believe me.

Why did Zero say not to believe him?

She didn't know, but the seal on Cage Zero was repaired, the red light went out, the three nodes in the building stabilized, and everything was temporarily alright.

We'll talk about it tomorrow.

She leaned back in her chair. Chen Mo finished singing the last line on stage, the guitar music stopped, and applause rang out in the bar.

Lin Qi clapped his hands twice, and the silver thread in his palm jumped seventy-two times, steadily.

Like a knife in its sheath, not yet drawn, but ready to be used at any moment.

The public electricity meter at No. 3 Jianshe Road Courtyard tripped at 3:17 PM.

Lu Chen lifted the evening newspaper from his face. Sunlight, filtered through the leaves of the sycamore trees, fell in irregular patches onto his pilling gray vest. He crushed an empty aluminum can and tossed it into a cardboard box at his feet. The box already contained forty-seven aluminum cans, which, at the recycling station's five-cent-a-can-be-recyclable price, amounted to two dollars and thirty-five cents.

Lin Qi emerged from behind the counter. A small patch of her cotton tank top was soaked with sweat and clung to her collarbone, while an old scar from years of wielding a knife peeked out from the edge of her shorts.

"It's not a short circuit." Lin Qi glanced down at the mechanical meter hanging on the wall. The aluminum disc was stuck between two red numbers and stopped rotating. "The load value hasn't changed, but the frequency has dropped to zero."

Lu Chen kicked off the slippers beside his feet and stepped barefoot onto the cement floor. The ground was a little cool, and two clumps of crabgrass grew out of the cracks in the cement.

"Go and turn the power back on," Lu Chen said.

Lin Qi didn't move. Her gaze remained fixed on the street outside the door.