When the results of the second mock SATs were posted, I, the perennial valedictorian, had plummeted to the bottom of the class. Suddenly, glowing text floated before my eyes like a livestream chat: [The Female Lead is done for! Everyone around her has bound a 'Swapper System' to forcibly trade their trash for her treasures.] [Swapping grades is just the beginning...] The comments were all lamenting my tragic fate. Until the next day. The guy who stole my grades suddenly dropped dead. 01 [Congratulations. You have identified the first Swapper.] [Please identify all hidden Swappers around you before Graduation Day. Failure to do so will result in 'The Erasure'—the loss of your limbs and senses until you are a living stump.] [Swappers Identified: 1] [Countdown to Graduation: 44 Days] The System's cold robotic voice rang in my head. I clenched my fists under the desk. Beside me, my lab partner was still gossiping about the morning's news in disbelief. "...They said he was walking down the hall and just dropped. Massive cardiac arrest. He was perfectly healthy at his physical last month." Seeing me zoning out, Sarah lowered her voice. "It's weird though, right? Caleb has been failing every class since freshman year, but he suddenly scores perfect marks on this mock exam. And the moment he gets the score... boom, dead. People are saying he messed with dark magic or something." I forced a pale smile. "There's no such thing as magic, Sarah. Let's not gossip about the dead." Sarah shrugged and went back to her phone. I looked down, hiding the storm in my eyes. Three days ago, I bound the [Hunter System]. The System told me that a group of people around me had bound "Swapper Systems." They each had one chance to swap anything of mine for theirs—at no cost. Grades were just the start. Next, they would take my looks, my family, even my lifespan. I had to find them before graduation. Otherwise, I would be stripped of everything, eventually suffering "The Erasure"—a fate worse than death. Any Swapper I correctly identified would face immediate termination. Whatever they stole would return to me within two business days. It was a kill-or-be-killed game. At first, I was skeptical. Until the mock SAT scores came out. I, Harper Vance, was at the bottom. And Caleb, the class slacker, was number one. I didn't hesitate. I opened the System interface mentally. [Identity Confirmed: Caleb. Stolen Attribute: Grades.] Not long after, I heard the news of his death. I confirmed two things. One: The System and the floating comments were real. Two: The Swappers didn't know I had a Hunter System. If they did, Caleb wouldn't have been so obvious. I was in the dark, but they were exposed. Advantage: Me. 02 Two days after Caleb died. The principal announced over the intercom: "Due to a server error, there was a mix-up in the grading system. Caleb's score was incorrect. The true top scorer is, once again, Harper Vance." The guidance counselor smiled at me later. "Harper, you've been top of the class all year. Keep this up, and you're looking at Stanford or Harvard, easy." I smiled back. The System was precise. It said "two business days," and my grades returned right on time. A few days later. While washing my face in the morning, I noticed several angry cystic acne spots erupting on my skin. The familiar glowing text appeared. [Another Swapper made a move. This time, it's the Female Lead's beauty.] [This one is smart. She didn't swap faces entirely. She's siphoning it bit by bit.] [Since the Lead is the Prom Queen type and the Swapper is plain, a full swap would be too obvious.] [She probably thinks it's just stress breakouts. She won't catch on.] [And to think the Lead treats her so well. Snakes everywhere.] So that was it. Without the comments, I wouldn't have noticed. The names in the comments were blurred out, but I extracted three clues: The Swapper is a plain-looking girl. The name has three syllables. She is close to me. Three names popped into my head immediately. My lab partner, Sarah. My roommate, Emily (I went to a boarding school). My neighbor back home, Chloe. After some observation, I locked onto Sarah. She was usually a bit chubby, but lately, she looked thinner, and her features seemed more refined. [Identity Confirmed: Sarah.] [Attribute Stolen: Partial Beauty.] Suddenly, a piercing alarm rang in my brain. [WARNING! WARNING!] [Host failed to identify the true Swapper!] [You have one chance remaining. Find the true thief within 3 days.] [Penalty for second failure: Beauty -50 permanently. IQ -100 permanently.] [Please take this seriously!] 03 I froze. This Swapper was cunning. Maybe Caleb's death spooked them. They weren't being blatant anymore. The hunt just got harder. Back in the dorm, I watched my roommate, Emily. Maybe it was psychological, but her skin looked glowing and porcelain-white today. Emily was humming, applying a sheet mask. "Em, what brand is that? Your skin looks amazing lately." I tested the waters casually. "Really? Do I look paler?" Emily beamed. "It's this drugstore brand. Super cheap. Want the link?" She sent me the Amazon link immediately, babbling about how she saw it on TikTok. I smiled and chatted along. I took out my phone and texted my neighbor, Chloe. "Hey girl, are you free this weekend? Want to go shopping?" Chloe replied instantly. "Nah, I'm staying in to study. Graduation is around the corner, too stressed to hang out." The next day, I knocked on Chloe's door with a box of cronuts. "I was in the neighborhood. Brought you treats." I pushed past the door before she could block me. "Omg, love you!" Chloe took the box. I asked, "Chloe, are you on a diet? You look... gaunt." "No way," Chloe said naturally. "I've been stress-eating pizza every night at 2 AM. I probably lost weight from anxiety." She stepped on the scale in the living room. "See? Weight hasn't changed. Sad." I chatted a bit longer and left. Back home, I summoned the System. [Identity Confirmed: Chloe.] [Attribute Stolen: Partial Beauty.] 04 Chloe hadn't lost weight or gotten paler. She looked the same. But I remembered she had extremely oily skin. One slice of pizza usually meant a breakout the next morning. Today, her face was flawless. And my face was covered in the acne that should have been hers. [Congratulations. Second Swapper Identified.] [Swappers Identified: 2] [Countdown: 36 Days] Simultaneously, I heard screams from the neighbor's house. "Chloe! Chloe, wake up!" "Call 911! She's not breathing!" I stood still in my hallway. I knew the penalty was death. But Chloe... was it worth dying over some pimples? Sensing my hesitation, the System spoke coldly: [From the moment she chose to target you and steal your beauty... she stopped being your friend.] [Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to yourself. The price of failure is The Erasure.] I shook my head. [I'm not being soft. I just don't understand. Is being pretty worth dying for?] Or maybe, to Chloe, I was never a friend. Just a target. The people around me felt like they were wearing masks. What was hiding underneath? Over the next week, I caught two more. One tried to swap my admission to Columbia University. Another tried to swap my popularity. I caught them fast. They were gone just as fast. The System was hyped. [Host, you're crushing it! Just survive until graduation!] [I'm applying for a bonus. Every catch adds 10 points to your final GPA!] Things looked bright. The comments said I might change my tragic destiny. Until that day. I was walking on the sidewalk. A truck swerved, hopping the curb, barreling straight for me. When I woke up in the hospital, I heard the doctors whispering outside. "Amputation." [WARNING! WARNING!] [Host's Luck has dropped to Zero!] [Identify the Luck Thief within 24 hours!] [Failure penalty: Amputation of both legs.]
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