Cryptobiosis

Cryptobiosis is a PC-based simulation of a secondary-school admissions interview stress-testing system. In its running exercise, you read accounts from interactive NPCs while avoiding spotlights: close the reading window before an NPC is illuminated, or repeated exposure will mark them as “dead” and prevent you from reading more of their text. Each NPC has a different life value, and their appearance changes as your reading progress unlocks. The simulation contains approximately 300,000 Chinese characters of accounts based on interviews and oral histories.

The final assessment

After meeting the required conditions, you can enter a large-scale final assessment with multiple-choice, short-answer and writing sections. The exam content relates to the NPCs and the system, and you cannot return to the reading once the exam begins. Submitting ends the session; your answers and related game data are sent to the “Examiner,” and your save data is deleted. The “Examiner” manually grades submissions and periodically publishes scores and a global ranking on a real website, where you can look up your record by entering your information.