Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The dormitory building of Silent Middle School was located behind the playground.

After ten o’clock at night, every mirror was covered with black cloth, and the only light remaining was in the dormitory supervisor’s office. I led Xu Zhibai around the patrolling Student Council and headed straight for the Underground Archives. Hidden there was the school’s history for this Dungeon, along with another answer I was looking for.

If characters could develop a sense of self because they were written repeatedly, then how exactly did the System maintain order?

The answer lay inside a steel cabinet.

A seal was taped to the cabinet door, reading “Author’s Belongings.” After I pried it open, I found a dozen journals and a stack of cassette tapes neatly arranged inside. The cover of the topmost journal read:

Recorder Training Manual.

I flipped to the first page. After reading just a few lines, my fingers went cold.

“All selected Recorders will receive Dungeon fragments in the form of dreams during their lifetime.”

“After the Recorder completes their creation, the text will automatically be incorporated into the Rule Material Library.”

“Upon death, Recorders are prioritized for transformation into a Rule Engine or a Maintenance Character.”

After Xu Zhibai finished reading, her expression darkened. “So you’re not a special case. You’re just a writer the System has been keeping for the long term?”

“It looks that way.”

“Then why weren’t you turned directly into an Engine?”

I remained silent for a few seconds before flipping to the very last page.

There was only a single handwritten note there, not printed text.

“Lin Zhaowan retains observational value; postpone recruitment.”

The handwriting was familiar-so familiar it made my jaw tighten.

It was my own handwriting.

More accurately, it was the specific script I used when writing mystery outlines. I stared at that line of text, and for a fleeting moment, an utterly absurd thought flashed through my mind.

There was another “me” inside the System.

Or rather, a part of who I used to be had already been left behind here.

Just then, the faint sound of pages turning echoed from the deepest part of the Underground Archives. A man in a gray uniform stepped out from behind the bookshelves. It was Zhou Rang again, but this time, the two characters on his name tag had changed.

Archivist.

“Can an Administrator work across different Dungeons?” I asked.

“Anywhere that needs mending falls under my jurisdiction.” He glanced at the training manual in my hand. “You finally know why you were kept.”

“Where is the other me?”

Zhou Rang didn’t answer directly. He simply handed me a cassette tape.

I pressed the play button, and a raspy, exhausted female voice immediately drifted out.

“If you are hearing this recording, it means the Hunter has already begun chasing you. Don’t believe what the System says about ‘reclamation.’ It isn’t reclamation; it’s dismemberment. It breaks an author down into the part that can write rules and the part that can feel fear. It keeps the former to do the work and throws the latter into the Dungeons.”

That voice… it was my own.

Xu Zhibai froze in place.

The recording continued:

“The reason you’re able to live right now is because I hid the ‘rule-writing’ part in advance.”

“I hid it inside a new book.”