Chapter Two: Rewards Can Bleed

At the maintenance door, Pei Jin escaped last and transferred its locked state to the empty, ruined platform. The station collapsed behind them. Blood ran from Gu Chen's ears. “Is that your ability?” Wanqing asked. “Sharing your senses. Maybe sharing the cost.” Zhou faced the tunnel. “That blast was triggered remotely by an encrypted signal identical to the midnight system.” Gu Chen's phone displayed a message eight hours before their next match: 【Team coordination test passed. Match Two difficulty increased.】 The collapse had not been murder. It had been unannounced training. “From now on,” Gu Chen said, “we're competing during the day too.”