Chapter Two: The Price of Ten Seconds

After everyone left, Lin filled a custom game with nine scripted players and ran twenty-eight experiments. Following the likeliest route cost nothing. Calling out a future that did not alter the scripts cost nothing. Moving onto a dim route without changing anyone else's choice caused only a headache and removed something trivial: an advertisement, the taste of an ordinary breakfast. When his action forced several characters to reroute, the hole became larger. On the twenty-eighth test, he intercepted a marksman and caused three bots to turn around. Afterward, he could no longer remember his elementary-school teacher's name. He had found the rule, not fairness.