Chapter One: The Man Who Lost Color

Zhou bounced the ball through the collapsing trap. Glasses cut along the baseline, hands shaking, and banked it in. Ten-nine. On the last possession, all three defenders watched Zhou. He threw the ball off Yellow Hair's back, collected the rebound through a defender's legs, then fed the abandoned Glasses beneath the block. Eleven-nine. At the horn, Zhou chose Perception from six offered attributes. Coolness passed behind his eyes; suddenly he could see scratches on the distant scoreboard. Then someone screamed. The red guard knelt, clawing at his eyes. “Why is everything gray? Where's red?” One teammate could no longer flex his left ankle; the other had lost high-frequency hearing. It was no effect.