Chapter Four: Those Who Refuse to Win

At one in the morning, Su took Lu to her “office,” a closed phone-repair shop. The shutter still advertised discounted screens. In the basement, six old computers sat completely disconnected from the internet, and a timeline of Mirror incidents covered one wall. Two people were waiting. Chen Ke was a thirty-year-old emergency nurse who spoke as if reporting temperatures. Her Second Self, Ember, was a little girl with bandages around both wrists. Ember could move another person's pain into herself for a short time. She had saved three panicking hosts in the emergency room. Each transfer left another burn beneath her bandages. The other recruit was Tang Zheng, a ride-share driver.