Chapter Two: Three Players Nobody Wanted

Silence held for seven seconds. “You owe me an apology,” Su Qing said. “I'll say it in person.” “Then you still haven't learned.” She hung up. At ten, she met him atop an abandoned mall. Her black coat was faded, her short hair windblown, and the laptop under her arm was held together by tape. Two years earlier, she had found the anomalies in Black Tide's match data and warned Zhou about the trap. He had kicked her from the team chat to keep her clear of it. Later, she was blacklisted for exposing drug abuse in a youth squad. Zhou never called. “The wound and attribute change are real.” Su examined his knee, then fitted a portable scanner to his head. “When you called, your brain showed activity no normal sleep produces.