A Ten-Thousand-Yuan Company Buys an Ocean

Lin watched his father’s recording seventeen times. Before the eighteenth, Lan-Zero closed it. “Sixty-three percent of the log is corrupted. Repetition will add no information.” “You knew he encountered a scout?” “No. My primary storage was offline eight years ago. These records prove Lin Haichuan drew the scout away from the *Far Tide* and used his beacon to fabricate jump coordinates.” “What happened afterward?” “Hunter One believed he carried the Starforge Core and followed him into the southeastern trench. The record ends thirty-seven minutes later.” Su held the brass whistle beneath a lamp. Nearly invisible blue marks lined its interior: both a navigational key and a key left to a son. “Telling you not to search doesn’t prove he died.”