The words lodged themselves in my skull like broken glass.
Seventy-two hours left.
I waited for him to laugh, to yell "prank!" or pull off a rubber mask Scooby-Doo style, but the silence stretched too long. My breath sounded too loud in the narrow alley. My chest felt like it was packed with bricks.
"Sorry, what?" I finally managed, my voice squeaking. "You can't just drop something like that and expect me to—"
"Believe?" he interrupted. His tone wasn't mocking, just… resigned. Like he'd heard this conversation too many times before.
"Yes! Believe! Because newsflash, dude, I'm not a video game character. I'm real. I eat instant noodles, I fail math tests, I oversleep. I exist!"
The boy tilted his head slightly, like a scientist observing a rat that thought it was a lion. "Standing, breathing, panicking. All physical signs of life, yes. But existing…" His voice thinned, softer now. "…not anymore."
I blinked at him. "…Not anymore?"
He took a step forward, and for the first time, I really saw him. Same age as me—maybe a year older. His hair was black, glossy, falling neatly like it belonged to a shampoo commercial. His white shirt was spotless, not a wrinkle in sight, like he'd just stepped out of a catalog. Too clean. Too unreal.
But his eyes—God. His eyes were wrong. Dark, deep, endless. The kind of eyes that didn't belong on a teenager. They belonged on someone who had seen centuries burn down.
"You've been revoked," he said.
I laughed. Not because it was funny, but because laughing was the only thing keeping me from running. "Revoked? Like a… library card?"
The corner of his mouth curved. "Exactly."
"Wow. Hilarious. So what, someone checked me out and forgot to return me?"
"No," he said, still watching me like a cat might watch a bug crawl across the floor. "Someone returned you."
My laugh died in my throat.
Returned me.
I opened my mouth to argue, but my phone buzzed in my pocket. With shaking hands, I pulled it out. The screen glowed white, and across the top in blocky, digital numbers, a countdown ticked:
71:42:59
The seconds fell like a guillotine blade.
"What the hell is this?" I shouted, thrusting the phone at him. "You did this, didn't you? This is some kind of stupid hack, isn't it? Who are you?!"
He didn't flinch. Didn't even glance at the phone. "The system doesn't glitch," he said calmly. "If you're seeing the timer, then it's already begun."
My heart thudded painfully in my chest. "System? What system?"
"The one that governs existence."
Okay. That was it. He was insane. A pretty boy cosplayer with god-complex syndrome.
I backed up a step, shaking my head. "Nope. Nope nope nope. You're nuts. I'm leaving."
I turned and marched toward the street, half-expecting him to grab my arm, but he didn't move.
Instead, he said quietly, "Go ahead. Walk into the world and see who notices you. See if your feet even leave prints on the ground."
That froze me mid-step.
I glanced down. The alley floor was dusty, littered with cigarette butts and wrappers. I stomped my sneaker into it, dragging the sole across. Then I crouched down.
Nothing.
No mark. No scuff. No evidence I'd touched it at all.
My stomach dropped into my shoes.
I spun on him. "What—what the hell is happening to me?"
He finally stepped forward, closing the distance. He smelled faintly of ozone, sharp and electric, like the air after a thunderstorm. "Your data is being erased," he said softly. "Bit by bit. Memory, record, matter. The system is preparing to delete you."
Data. Erased. Delete.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch him. Instead I just stood there like a frozen idiot, shaking.
"You can fight it," he added.
That snapped me out of my trance. "Fight it? How?!"
His expression darkened, but his voice remained steady. "There's only one way. You must go to Wuqi."
The word twisted in the air, heavy and strange. Wuqi. Even hearing it made my skin prickle.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"The Forgotten Land," he said. "It's where all revoked existences go. A graveyard for the erased. If you can survive there and find the root of your revocation, you can return."
I shook my head wildly. "No. No, that's insane. I'm not going to some… death dimension just because you said so. You're probably some cult freak trying to lure me into a van!"
His lips curved in that faint, knowing smile again. "And yet, you'll go."
"Why would I?"
"Because," he said, pointing at my phone, "you don't have a choice."
I looked down again. The timer was already at 71:32:41.
Seconds, slipping away like water through my fingers.
My throat closed up. I couldn't breathe.
This couldn't be real. I had a math test. A best friend. A life.
Except… I didn't. Not anymore.
I thought of my mom's terrified face. My empty bedroom. My erased school records.
They weren't glitches. They were warnings.
"What happens if I… don't go?" I whispered.
He met my eyes, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of pity there. "You fade. Slowly. You'll lose your voice, your reflection, your shadow. Then one day you'll close your eyes and not open them again. No one will mourn. No one will even remember you existed."
A shiver ran through me so deep it felt like my bones rattled.
"You're lying," I whispered. "You have to be lying."
He stepped back into the shadows. "Three days, Xian Lee. Use them wisely."
"Wait!" I reached for him, but he was gone—melted into the dark like he'd never been there at all.
I was alone.
Alone with the sound of my phone timer ticking away my existence.
I staggered out of the alley onto the street. The city buzzed with life—cars honking, people laughing, neon signs flashing. Everything normal. Everything bright.
And not one person looked at me.
I shoved past a man in a suit—he didn't flinch. I shouted at a group of students—they didn't glance my way.
I grabbed a woman's arm and begged, "Please, do you see me? Please—"
She walked right through me like I was mist.
I stumbled back, my chest heaving.
I wasn't just forgotten.
I was already fading.
Hours passed in a blur. I tried my house again. My mom screamed like the first time. My best friend shoved me away like I was a stranger. At school, I wasn't just missing from the roll call—my desk had been filled by someone else. A kid I'd never seen before.
It was like I'd been replaced.
By midnight, I sat on the edge of a fountain downtown, shivering under the glow of the streetlights. My phone buzzed again.
70:12:08
Seventy hours left.
I stared at the numbers until my eyes burned. Then I whispered to myself, "Wuqi."
The word felt wrong on my tongue. Heavy. Dangerous. But also… inevitable.
If it was real, maybe it was my only shot.
If it wasn't… well, I'd be dead in three days anyway.
I pressed my palms together, trying to keep them from shaking. "Okay, Xian. No more panicking. No more denial. You're either crazy… or you're already gone. So let's find this Forgotten Land."
Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled.
And for the first time, I felt the pull.
Like invisible strings tugging me toward the unknown.
Toward Wuqi