The People in the Copied City

“Everyone stay where you are! Do not approach the machinery!” Lu Yao seized the freight cart's loudspeaker and sent his voice down the street. He did not know what “unclaimed-asset reclamation” meant, but the system had listed 4,362 human beings as assets. That alone made it dangerous. Residents surrounded him. Some carried kitchen knives, some clutched children, and most kept calling on phones with no signal. The first to confront him was a tall man around forty, wearing gray fire-rescue training clothes. An old burn scar crossed his left arm, and he carried a breaching axe in his right hand. “Han Zheng, former captain at Riverside Fire and Rescue. What is this place?” “Inside Factory Zero.” “How can Block Seven be inside a factory?”