Chapter Two: A Prophet Only Needs Seven Days

A transparent chip no larger than a fingernail hovered at the corridor's end. Lin reached for it. A voice like the public announcement thundered around them. [WARNING: ANOMALOUS PLAYER IS READING FOUNDATION PARAMETERS.] [ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM ARRIVES IN SIXTY SECONDS.] Faceless black figures seeped from the walls. Red countdowns shrank in the center of their chests. Su raised the trauma shears and stepped in front of Lin. “If you know the future, think of something.” Instead, Lin snapped the access badge in half. He forced one piece into the lock and the other into an old tape machine built into the wall. He remembered the vault's mechanical safeguard from the previous fire: anything jamming the reels would drop magnetic shielding gates across