Chapter One: The World's Only Piece of Junk

Tonight's sponsor was a hardware shop on the edge of bankruptcy. Fewer than two hundred people had entered its giveaway, and somehow Shen Yan had won the grand prize whose specifications had never been published. He held the card up to the camera. The old scar across his right hand whitened beneath the light. “If it really is a mining card,” he said, “at least it'll save on heating.” He ended the stream ten minutes before midnight. Silence reclaimed the rented room. A poster from White Tower's championship year still hung on the wall. In it, Shen Yan stood at the center while Lin Qi balanced the trophy on his shoulder. Everyone smiled as if shadows had not yet been invented.