Borrowed Talent at Number One

Elsewhere, Zhou Duo was playing the deciding game of his broadcast match. The moment the blue light went dark, he stopped. Three rotation paths that had existed in his mind vanished. He chose north from memory and walked straight into crossing fire. Team wipe. The North American squad completed a reverse sweep. The host fell silent for five full seconds. The chat’s declarations of “new god” dissolved into question marks. Inside Spark, ZERO reached rank twenty-seven. [PATH SIMULATION +7%. PREVIOUS HOLDER HAS LOST TEMPORARY PROJECTION.] Lin Zhou had her confirmation. At least part of this celebrated genius was borrowed. Private messages flooded her inbox: cheating accusations, offers to buy the account. The final message came from OBSIDIAN-K.