Carrying a Server Through the End of the World

[ONCE PER CYCLE, MARK ONE NONLIVING OBJECT OF NO MORE THAN ONE CUBIC METER. IT WILL BE EXEMPT FROM ZEROING.] Gu sighed over the speaker. “You think carrying over a crate of rifles or one server will let you challenge me?” “One server is enough,” Tang said. She dragged a black chassis into the halo left by the cube. It contained neither money nor weapons, but the Echo Node she had just built: the public weight table, key profiles, instructions for the next cycle, and a recording for her future self. Lin applied the Material Mark. Silver lines spread around the chassis like roots. On Day Seven, Gu used media channels, supplies, and shelter places to push the Zero vote above fifty percent again. Lin did not waste strength trying to stop it.