Chapter Three: One Mistake, One Ability Lost

"Bring the candidates to Haicheng," Gu said. "I want every ten minutes of his life limited to needs we manufacture." At five in the morning, Lin returned to his room, barely ten square meters wide. Last night's noodles waited on the table. He ate a mouthful that felt like warm plastic. Without taste, he remembered his mother's last bowl of scallion noodles with painful clarity: crisp onions, sweet soy, fragrant fat on his lips. The ability had been precious not because of food, but because memory lived inside it. His screen lit. [FAILURES: 1. STREAK REWARDS RESET.] [ROUND FOUR AID FUND: USD 1,000.] [TIME REMAINING: 09:59] Footsteps suddenly filled the alley.