Chapter One: The Internet Waits for Me to Fail

The stranger looked up. His face was exactly the one Lin had painted, only paler and far more afraid. “You painted me, and you're asking who I am?” His gaze found the date on the phone. “What year is this?” Lin did not answer. Zhou Yuan snatched the phone. His fingers began to shake. “Impossible. On December fourteenth, three years ago, I took one last delivery through Changning Tunnel. When that truck hit me, I know I died.” The restored replay opened the account that had submitted his avatar. Runner Yuan had been registered three minutes earlier. Its profile held a single post, inexplicably dated three years ago: a blood-smeared photograph of a tunnel and six words. “This city swallowed me whole.”