The Nonexistent Thirteenth Person

When Chen Yao opened his eyes in a sealed space built from grids of cold light, the System announced, “Twelve participants in this trial.” The vital signs of subjects numbered 01 through 12 appeared clearly on the monitoring wall. The rules were straightforward: one person would be eliminated each round, and only the last survivor would earn the right to “return to reality.” But as a structural engineer, he quickly noticed something wrong. In every replay, his figure took 0.3 seconds longer to load. His fingerprints and iris data were missing from the registration list. And even after the first death was counted, the System still displayed “Survivors: 12.”