Chapter Two: The Price of Ten Seconds

Ji seeing him off at the railway station. His dying mother touching his hair— What had she said? He closed his eyes until the words returned: Take care of your sisters. He remembered the dry warmth of her palm. Relief came first, then terror. He was checking his own life like a warehouse after a fire, with no idea which shelf would burn next. "If I don't change anything, I lose nothing," he told the mirror. In scrims, he followed the brightest paths. His effectiveness collapsed. He warned of ganks but set no traps. He saw retreats but did not cut them off. Twice Chen asked why he had not chased. Lin blamed cooldowns. At twenty-six minutes of game three, Obsidian trailed by three thousand. Futures crowded the Titan river like inverted rain.