47: A blood-red button

Suddenly, Chen Xi felt a wave of dizziness and opened his eyes.

It wasn't the warehouse ceiling. It was white, smooth, and embedded with a row of LED light strips. The lights weren't on, but the room was lit by the blue glow of an instrument screen nearby.

He was lying in a pod.

A game pod. A beta version, streamlined with a transparent lid. Through the lid, he could see the room. It wasn't large, about ten square meters, with monitors on the wall displaying his heartbeat, brain waves, and real-time data.

He moved his fingers.

His fingers were curled, clutching something. It was hard, angular, and pressing into his palm.

He raised his hand.

He opened it.

A button.

Made of copper, circular, with slightly worn edges. The front was embossed with the emblem of the National Revolutionary Army. The back had an eyelet, the area where the thread passed through worn shiny.

There was something on the button.

Dark red, semi-dry, and sticky. It was blood.

Chen Xi stared at the button.

He watched it for three seconds.

Then he sat up abruptly.

The game pod lid slid open automatically with a faint hydraulic hiss. Cold air rushed in, making him shiver. He was wearing a tight-fitting haptic suit; the material was thin, soaked with sweat, and clinging to his skin.

He climbed out of the pod.

His feet touched the floor; it was cold. The floor was made of a gray-white synthetic material, clean enough to be reflective.

He walked to the wall and leaned against it.

His breathing was rapid, his chest heaving. He was still clutching that button. It pressed into his palm, causing a sharp pain.

He looked down and checked it again.

No mistake.

Copper, the army emblem, blood.

He turned to look at the display screen next to the game pod. The screen was split into several sections: one showed a live stream, now black with the message "Signal Interrupted"; another showed the system log, with the last line reading: [Abnormal neural fluctuations detected, forced offline].

Timestamp: November 3, 2026, 4:17 AM.

He had entered the game at 8:00 PM on November 2, 2026.

Four days had passed in the game.

Eight hours had passed in reality.

Chen Xi walked to the other end of the room. There was a sink and a mirror there. He turned on the faucet, and cold water splashed out. He placed the button on the counter, cupped some water, and splashed it onto his face.

The water was very cold.

He looked up into the mirror.

The person in the mirror was pale, with dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his chin. His hair was messy, damp with sweat, and sticking to his forehead. His eyes were bloodshot, filled with red veins.

He stared at himself in the mirror.

He watched for five seconds.

Then he looked down at the button on the counter.

Blood stained the white surface, leaving a dark red mark. The button lay in the middle of the stain, its copper color reflecting the light.

He reached out and picked up the button.

He brought it to his nose and sniffed.

The smell of rust. The smell of blood. And an indescribable scent, like gunpowder smoke mixed with scorched earth.

His hands began to shake.

It wasn't fear. It was something else. Like a voltage overload, he couldn't control his muscles.

He gripped the button tightly.

The edge of the button cut into his palm, hurting.

He walked to the window.

Outside was the city at night. Tall buildings, lights, and traffic. Neon signs flickered in the distance. The sky was deep blue, not black, dyed a murky blue-purple by the city's light pollution.

He watched for a long time.

Then he turned and went back to the game pod.

He sat down.

He opened his hand; the button lay in his palm.

He opened the system interface.

A login interface popped up on his retina. Blue background, white font: [Connection interrupted, reconnect?]

He selected [Yes].

A progress bar appeared and spun. It spun for five seconds before stopping. A prompt popped up: [Server under maintenance, please try again later].

He closed the interface.

He picked up the personal terminal on the table next to him. He unlocked it, opened the browser, and searched for "Sihang Warehouse 1937".

The results came up.

Encyclopedia entries, historical data, old photos. He clicked on a photo. Black and white, blurry, the warehouse's outer walls were riddled with holes. The caption read: "October 1937, Defense of Sihang Warehouse."

He closed it.

He searched for "Chen Shusheng" again.

No results. There were only a few general descriptions of the Sihang Warehouse defenders, with no specific names mentioned.

He put down the terminal.

In his palm, the button was still cold.

He stood up and walked around the room. After two laps, he stopped. He walked to the corner where there was a trash can. He raised his hand, intending to throw it away.

Halfway through the motion, he stopped.

He lowered his hand again.

He went back to the sink, turned on the faucet, and rinsed the button. The bloodstains wouldn't wash away; they had already seeped into the copper rust, becoming dark red patches.

He turned off the water and dried it with a paper towel.

He placed the button on the counter.

Then he walked to the door and opened it.

Outside was a hallway. It was carpeted in beige and very clean. Identical room doors lined both sides, all closed. At the end of the hallway was a window through which he could see the buildings outside.

He stepped out and closed the door.

He walked along the hallway. His footsteps were very light, the carpet muffling the sound. He reached the elevator and pressed the down button.

The elevator arrived quickly.

The doors opened to an empty car. He stepped inside and pressed the button for the first floor.

The elevator descended.

A feeling of weightlessness.

He watched the floor numbers change. 23, 22, 21... He was still clutching the button.

The elevator reached the first floor, and the doors opened. Outside was the lobby, with high ceilings and a glass curtain wall. The reception desk was empty, and half the lights were off, with only emergency lighting on.

He walked out.

He crossed the lobby and pushed open the glass doors.

Outside was the street. It was early morning, before dawn, and the streetlights were a warm yellow. There were cars on the road, not many, passing by occasionally. The air was very cool, with a slight smell of exhaust.

He stood on the sidewalk.

He looked up at the sky.

There were no stars. Only the city lights, dyeing the sky a dusty orange-gray.

He stood for a while.

Then he turned and walked back.

He returned to the building, took the elevator up, and went back to his room.

The button was still on the sink.

He walked over and picked it up. He went to the game pod and sat down.

He opened his personal terminal and pulled up the recording function. He aimed it at his palm and filmed.

In the lens, the button was very clear. Copper color, the army emblem, the bloodstains.

He filmed for ten seconds.

Saved.

Then he opened his contacts and found a number. It was labeled "Project Team - Emergency Contact". He dialed it.

Beep—

Beep—

It rang five times before someone picked up.

"Hello?" A man's voice answered, a bit raspy, as if he had just woken up.

"It's me," Chen Xi said.

"Mr. Chen? What's wrong? It's four in the morning—"

"Something happened."

"What happened? A game issue? We detected your forced offline and are currently investigating—"

"It's not the game," Chen Xi interrupted him. "I have something in my hand."

"What is it?"

"A button."

There was a two-second silence on the other end.

"What kind of button?"

"A button from a 1937 National Revolutionary Army uniform," Chen Xi said, his voice flat. "It's stained with blood. I brought it out from the game."

An even longer silence.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

"Mr. Chen," the voice on the other end changed, becoming very grave. "Stay where you are. Don't move. Don't contact anyone. We'll be there immediately."

The call ended.

Chen Xi put down the terminal.

He looked at the button in his hand.

Then he walked to the window and pulled open the curtains.

The horizon began to turn white. The deep blue receded, turning into a gray-white. The silhouettes of the buildings became clear.

He waited.

Ten minutes later, the sound of car engines came from below. Two black SUVs, no sirens, but moving very fast. They braked hard and stopped at the building's entrance.

The car doors opened, and five people got out. They were in plain clothes but moved with great efficiency. Three entered the building, while two stayed by the cars on guard.

Chen Xi left the window.

He walked to the center of the room and stood there.

He was still clutching the button.

His palm was sweaty, and the button was a bit slippery.

He heard footsteps in the hallway. Fast and light, they stopped at the door.

A knock on the door.

Three knocks, very rhythmic.

Chen Xi didn't move.

The door opened.

Three people entered. Two men and one woman. The men were both in their thirties, with buzz cuts and sturdy builds. The woman was younger, with short hair and glasses.

They saw Chen Xi, and then they saw the button in his hand.

The man in front walked over.

"Mr. Chen, I'm Li Su," he said. "Security Supervisor for the 'Great Wall' Project."

Chen Xi nodded.

Li Su held out his hand. "Please give that to me."

Chen Xi handed it over.

Li Su took the button, didn't look at it, and put it directly into a transparent evidence bag. He sealed it and handed it to the woman next to him. She took it, pulled an instrument out of her bag, and scanned it.

The instrument emitted a faint hum.

Lines of data popped up on the screen.

The woman looked up at Li Su. "The material matches the characteristics of 1930s military supplies. The bloodstains... human blood, Type O. There's gunpowder residue and soil particles attached."

Li Su's expression changed.

He looked at Chen Xi. "Mr. Chen, please come with us."

"Where to?"

"The Command Center."

Chen Xi didn't ask anything else.

He turned, picked up his jacket from the chair, and put it on. He followed the three out the door.

In the hallway, the other two were already waiting by the elevator. The five of them surrounded Chen Xi, entered the elevator, and went downstairs.

In the lobby, the reception desk was still empty.

They walked out of the building and got into the cars. Chen Xi sat in the middle car with Li Su accompanying him. The woman sat in the front passenger seat, still holding the evidence bag.

The car started and drove away.

Chen Xi looked out the window.

The city was waking up. The streetlights went out, and the sky grew bright. Early-rising cleaners were sweeping the streets, buses were pulling into stops, and people were boarding.

Everything was normal.

Except for the fact that he had just been clutching a blood-stained button.

The car drove for twenty minutes and entered an underground garage. The gate opened automatically, the car drove in, and the gate closed.

They parked and got out.

Ahead was an elevator that required a key card.

Li Su swiped his card, and the elevator doors opened. They entered, and the elevator descended.

It went deep.

Chen Xi felt his ears pop.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.

Outside was a hallway. It was white, with bright lights and reflective floors. Doors lined both sides—metal doors with no windows.

They walked to a door.

The door was labeled: [Command Center - Grade A].

Li Su used his fingerprint and an iris scan.

The door slid open.

The room inside was large and semi-circular. The front was a wall of screens, divided into dozens of sections displaying various data, maps, and images. Below was a row of consoles where seven or eight people sat wearing headsets.

In the center of the screen wall, the largest screen was displaying a high-definition image of the button.

Rotating, zooming, analyzing.

A man in his fifties stood in front of the console, his back to the door. Hearing the sound, he turned around.

He had a buzz cut, a square face, and very sharp eyes.

He looked at Chen Xi.

Then he looked at the evidence bag in Li Su's hand.

"Is it him?" the man asked.

"Yes," Li Su said. "Chen Xi. He brought the button out."

The man walked over.

He took the evidence bag and glanced at it.

Then he looked up at Chen Xi.

"I am Director Long," he said. "The overall person in charge of the 'Great Wall' Project."

Chen Xi nodded.

Director Long stared at him for three seconds.

Then he turned and spoke to the console, "Pull up all the data from the last three minutes."

The screens switched.

Waveforms, spectrums, energy readings.

"Look here," a technician pointed to one of the curves. "At 4:16:23 AM, an abnormal quantum signal appeared. The intensity... was three orders of magnitude above the threshold."

"Matter transmission?"

"A trace materialization phenomenon was detected. Mass... approximately 3 grams. Coordinates locked to Chen Xi's game pod."

Director Long turned back to look at Chen Xi.

"Mr. Chen," he said. "You just broke the laws of physics."

Chen Xi didn't speak.

Director Long took a step closer.

"That button," he lowered his voice. "It's from a Sihang Warehouse defender's uniform. We compared it with historical records; the pattern is identical."

He paused.

"And the blood on it, after preliminary analysis, belongs to a male between seventeen and twenty years old. Time of death... no more than twenty-four hours ago."

Chen Xi's hand tightened.

Director Long looked at him with a complex expression.

"Mr. Chen," he said. "What you brought back isn't a game item."

"It's a piece of history."