Chapter Three: Gatekeepers in the City

Lin closed his fists and slowly inverted the room's gravity. Hundreds of server cabinets rose to the ceiling like a forest of black monuments. Faceless figures poured in and fell among them, trapped by steel frames. The countdown stopped at eleven seconds. One line remained lit across the ancient door. Beyond the crack was neither wall nor darkness, but an inverted Antarctic sky. Under green auroras, the vast hummingbird city raised its head from the ice. A man in an old polar suit stood at its center. Lin recognized his father. After twenty-two years, Lin Yue had not aged. He stared through the opening in terror and hammered his fists against a transparent barrier.