Chapter Three: You Block the Chips; I Buy the Rules

“Conditions confirmed,” the voice of the Firmament Order replied. “No node destroyed. No life harmed. Establish a superior order.” Pain exploded. The hall vanished, replaced by a black ocean of data. YaoCore’s controller was a golden fortress above it, with millions of authorization chains stretching across the city. Ruifeng’s line was only a small boat in tow. Chenzhou did not attack the fortress. He sank his awareness into the A1. “Broadcast the five-year-old disaster-recovery clause.” “The clause has been abolished by later agreements.” “For new chips. Not for you.” The A1 released a forgotten protocol: if a cloud instruction conflicted with on-site human safety, local nodes could form an emergency network and override remote control by