Chapter Three: The Release-Night Crash

Before dawn, all forty-seven Hive accounts were restricted. Lin's replay passed twenty million views, and “one puddle destroys a ten-thousand-yuan grail” topped the trending list. Some called him a hero. Others offered money for his address. More practically, an overseas collector hired him to authenticate a complete group of early Skyvault releases. Lin used the advance to pay the remainder of his mother's surgery deposit. He and Su agreed to establish an independent authentication studio named ClearMark. As they packed the broadcast gear, Tang approached with a silver-gray box. “A man asked me to give you this. He said you earned it by preventing the transaction.” There was no brand, size, or barcode. Only one handwritten mark: NULL-01.