Chapter Five: I Made a Thousand People Take the Wrong Road

Tourists followed the drums, vendors followed tourists, and couriers followed a tempting shortcut. Su placed thirty handwritten wrong-way signs. Zhou triggered the striking mechanisms of twelve old clocks. Their chimes traveled between buildings without a single phone. At eleven, 1,437 people simultaneously ignored navigation. Tianheng changed traffic lights to disperse them. Probability Sight let Lin slow one float by half a beat and send a lion dancer ahead by one. Autonomous patrol cars became trapped behind percussionists. Drones mistook a thousand identical clock banners for a thousand Lin Yans. The city map crumpled. [MISSION COMPLETE.] [ABILITY STOLEN: CROWD CADENCE 0.1%.]