“So, what about those 'killing rooms' from earlier?”

  Thanh suddenly burst out laughing. “Those are Crow’s DIG Units, they’re for training. Sorry for scaring you; we just wanted to test your capabilities. No one I’ve ever brought there has made it past a single round. You’re the first to clear it, and you cleared three!”

  Dai Hung suddenly cut in, “I said two. If you die during a round, it counts as a loss.”

  Jin, who had been sitting silently with his nose buried in his computer, suddenly pushed his chair back. “Three. The door opened.”

  Latte looked pensive. “I’m leaning towards two as well...”

  Old Master Nam Hai spoke with finality, “Rules are rules. If the door opens, the round is cleared. That makes three.”

  An argument erupted among them. Thanh walked over and sat beside me, watching them with a gentle smile. Her eyes radiated warmth, yet carried a strange, profound loneliness.

  “My mother passed away when I was two,” she said quietly. “My father has been missing for five years. They, the people in that room, are my family. They’re all I have. I’d do anything to help them escape this place.”

  She turned to me, placing her hand on mine, her eyes pleading. “We’ve waited a long time to find someone like you. Will you help us?”

  “I... I just got lucky. I don’t have the skills you think I do. I can’t do it.”

  I was flustered. I had once thought I’d do anything just to stay by this girl’s side a little longer. If this were a few hours ago, I surely would have succumbed to that look in her eyes. But now...

  “If the kid doesn't want to do it, don't force him. This isn't his fight,” Hung said coldly.

  Thanh bit her lip and let go of my hand.

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered, hanging my head.

  The next thing I knew, she had logged us both out. I woke up inside a pod—a scanner, apparently, used to transport people into the Underground. Thanh stepped out of the scanner next to mine. Beside us were four other pods, closed but still humming with activity. The space was cluttered with machinery and monitoring screens, most of which looked untouched for years.

  She led me up a flight of stairs. It turned out the scanner room was located directly beneath Minh Thanh’s house. Looking back now, she must have been incredibly lonely living all by herself in such a vast home.

  “I’m sorry...” I repeated like an idiot.

  “You lied when you said you didn't know martial arts, didn't you?”

  I flinched.

  “I watched you all day, and in the Unit, too. The way you move... it’s unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. You would be an amazing Fighter.”

  She looked at me with expectation and trust. I couldn't even bring myself to meet her gaze.

  “I’m not as great as you think.”

  “Don’t doubt yourself. I’m certain that—”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I clenched my fists and shouted, cutting her off. “You don't know a damn thing! I... I almost killed someone!”

  Thanh’s face was exactly as I’d imagined: eyes wide, brow furrowed as if she hadn't heard me correctly. When she realized I wasn't going to elaborate, her expression shifted to one of pure hurt.

  “I’m sorry,” I said one last time. I turned my back and walked away as fast as I could.

  “Tomorrow!” Thanh suddenly screamed after me. “I’ll be waiting for you at the back gate... if you change your mind!

  My pace faltered for a second. She kept shouting, “I just think... I don’t know the whole story, but I believe everyone deserves a chance to change. I believe you aren't that kind of person!”

  No, I am exactly that kind of person. She knew nothing about me. Nothing at all.

  I put my head down and ran, disappearing into the darkness of the alleyway.

  ------------------------

  I found myself standing in the middle of a room engulfed in flames.

  I felt no heat, no fear, only a mind-numbing, frantic delirium. In the distance, Minh Thanh was suspended by a rope, dangling over a vat of boiling oil. She was screaming for my help.

  I tried to run to her, but the flames rose up to block my path, emitting ghoulish laughter.

  “Shut up! Get out of my way!”

  “Can’t get away. Can’t get away,” the flames hissed, morphing into distorted faces that slithered past one another.

  “Why?!”

  “Because we are you!”

  I let out a blood-curdling scream, covering my ears as I charged through the fire toward Thanh. But by the time I reached her, the rope had already snapped. Terrified, I glanced down into the vat...

  Someone was stepping out from the bubbling oil—someone I could never forget as long as I lived. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me.

  “It was you...”

  “No, I didn't mean it, please...”

  “It was you. You ruined me. With those very hands.”

  “No, I truly...”

  “YOU’RE A MANIAC!”

  “NO!”

  I screamed at the top of my lungs, only to realize I was standing in my familiar 10A3 classroom. Over twenty people—forty pairs of eyes—were staring at me. Mr. Minh was standing right in front of me, tapping his ruler, his face speckled with a few stray droplets of my spit.

  Apparently, I had just screamed in his face.

  “Did I hear that correctly? I ask you to come up and solve a problem and you dare refuse me?”

  I looked at the chalkboard with blurry, sleep-deprived eyes. It might as well have been written in ancient scripture.

  “No, sir. I didn’t,” I replied, triggering a roar of laughter from the class.

  Naturally, my name ended up in the class conduct book.

  I hadn't slept a wink last night. Tangled thoughts and half-real, half-hallucinatory dreams were driving me mad. Yesterday should have been a beautiful dream; instead, it had turned into this nightmare.

  I had said the one thing I shouldn't have to the one person I didn't want knowing.

  “I’ll be waiting for you at the back gate after school... if you change your mind...”

  I shook my head, trying to flush that sliver of hope out of my mind. It was surely just a momentary impulse on Thanh’s part. With her keen observation skills, she’d realize after a night of thinking that I was just a freak and a coward. Hundreds of guys would die for a chance to date Minh Thanh; she’d find someone new in no time.

  “What’s with that dazed look? How’d the date go yesterday?”

  Hai slid over to me as soon as recess began, his face brimming with excitement.

  “It was nothing,” I snapped.

  “So, any kissing?”

  I didn't want to answer, nor did I want to prolong the conversation, so I just shook my head. I wasn't lying—she hadn't kissed me. Everything that happened was just a sugar-coated way of drugging me into unconsciousness.

  Despite my obvious irritation, he kept prying. “So when did she dump you? Mine was at 5:00 PM, which is a decent run. Rumor has it the record is 6:00 AM the next morning...”

  I snapped. Didn't this guy know when to stop?

  “What if I told you we haven't broken up yet?”

  Hai looked at me like I was a cockroach in a kitchen, then burst into fitful laughter.

  “Oh man, this guy still hasn't accepted reality. Wake up, buddy. She doesn't like you. She doesn't like anyone. She just makes you feel like you’re special.”

  That was the thing I hated about him. Everything he said was unpleasant, yet somehow always right. Thanh didn't like me. Maybe she hadn't said the words "it's over" yet, but it didn't matter. We would never speak to each other again.

  Hai narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. “Don't be sad. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Since you lost this one, I’ll show you how to snag another...”

  I couldn't listen anymore. I couldn't believe I was sitting here taking romantic advice from a guy girls avoided like the plague.

  “Stop acting like you know me. You aren't even that close to me.”