Chapter 16 • The Eve of Room Assignment
966 Words
The system's voice blared out once more, slitting through the night's silence like a sharp blade:
[Observation data update complete for current residential zone.][Personnel composition to be reorganized and adjusted tomorrow morning.]
A beat of deathly stillness hung in the air—then the room erupted, as if a grenade had been tossed into the crowd.
"Room reassignment?! Are you kidding me?!"
"I just hit it off with everyone here! Why the hell do we have to switch?!"
"…I don't want to leave. Please, don't send me to another room."
Ji Yuan stood in the corner, his back pressed to the wall. His ears were ringing, a deafening buzz like a swarm of mosquitoes whirring around his head, yet he could make out nothing at all.
He watched as someone lunged for the doorknob, another shouted curses up at the camera, and some even broke down in tears.
He had anticipated this reaction, yet when faced with it head-on, he found his own palms slick with cold sweat.
Xie Chuan kicked the bed frame hard. "That's a plain cheap shot, this system is."
Yi Ran's face had drained of all color. "How does it even judge us? What counts as good or bad behavior? We don't even have the freedom… the ability to choose anymore."
Amid the chaos, however, Lu Xu lifted his head in silence and looked at Lu Zhibai. He wanted to speak, yet no words came to mind.
He parted his lips, and only a quiet murmur escaped:
"…Just don't get separated from me."
Lu Zhibai made no reply. She merely stood her ground, her gaze fixed straight on the camera, as if studying the system's "evaluation logic."
Her eyes were frigid enough to freeze, unblinking, as if waiting for the lens to flinch.
And in that moment, the red light above the system remained locked on her, unwavering, not an inch of movement.
In another corner, Shen Zheng sat on the edge of a bed, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips.
He said nothing, waiting for the rest to fall completely apart before he spoke, his voice calm and cold:
"You all fear being separated. I'm waiting for you to unravel."
Cui Xun, standing right beside him, frowned and lowered his voice: "What if we sneakily swap our trackers before the system assigns the rooms?"
Shen Zheng looked at him and smiled, the amusement never reaching his eyes. "Do you really think it only uses those little gadgets to sort us?"
Cui Xun leaned in again, his voice even lower: "Then should we find a way… to get our hands on the lists?"
Shen Zheng did not answer directly. Instead, he lifted his gaze toward Lu Zhibai, his eyes narrowing slowly.
"If she's not in our group, this'll be no fun at all."
Shen Zheng's smile lingered as he paused, then added slowly, almost to himself:
"Though there's no hurry. After all… I think we'll all be seeing each other again."
Cui Xun stared at him, dumbfounded. "A-Are you serious?"
Shen Zheng did not reply. He merely let out a soft chuckle.
The night hung over them like a leaden shroud, heavy enough to suffocate.
The red light slithered through every corner like a snake, as if marking who would break first.
The system had revealed no method for the grouping, no rules, no criteria. Everyone fell to whispering, their doubts hanging thick in the air:
"…Do you think the higher-level ones will be split up?"
"Those the system's named directly… will they just disappear?"
"Aren't we human? Don't we even get to choose where we live?"
Someone shouted furiously up at the camera, "What the hell are you sorting us by?! Who gave you the right?!"
The camera's red light swiveled slowly, locking onto the person with pinpoint accuracy.
The system responded, its tone cold and devoid of all emotion:
[Warning. Interference behavior under assessment.][Current remarks added to behavioral tendency evaluation.]
The room fell silent in an instant. The person froze, their mouth agape, no more words coming out.
Lu Zhibai spoke in a soft voice: "…It's recording every single word we say."
"We're not the ones testing it—it's testing us."
Ji Yuan closed his eyes, the system's cold, mechanical announcements still echoing in his mind. He muttered:
"We're playing a game we don't even understand the rules to."
"And it… is watching us break."
It dawned on him then that he could not remember the last time he had made a truly voluntary choice.
Just as the silence settled over everyone once more, the system's alert blared out again:
[Room reassignment adjustment to initiate within eight hours.][Initiating countdown mode.]
Lu Zhibai spoke suddenly, her voice as light as a breeze, yet her tone brooked no argument:
"It will never let us decide who we're with."
"It only dictates—who leaves, who stays, who's a 'troublemaker,' who's a 'specimen.'"
Everyone turned to look at her. Xie Chuan's mouth twisted into a grimace. "That's downright creepy, the way you put that."
Yi Ran murmured, almost to himself: "Have we… have we actually been sorted this whole time?"
At that moment, the camera flickered once. Lu Zhibai paused, then whispered slowly:
"…It's already sifting us out."
A tense stalemate fell over the room.
Through the hush, Lu Xu spoke, his voice quiet:
"…Doesn't it feel like this isn't just swapping people around."
"It feels more like… it's gearing up for a new round of tests."
Ji Yuan stared at him in shock. Xie Chuan let out a curse. "Quit it, man. You're giving me the creeps."
"And you're such a jinx, by the way."
But no one laughed.
Because this "adjustment" might be far more drastic than any of them dared to imagine.
[End of Chapter Sixteen]
- Writer
