Chapter One: Tomorrow for One Dollar

【Successful verdict for a renewable-energy corporation, June 2029. Opening bid: 400,000 celestial credits.】 【A master salesperson’s closing instinct. Hourly rental: 800 credits.】 【The seventh claim of an unpublished room-temperature superconductivity patent. Opening bid: 70,000,000 credits.】 His account balance glowed in the upper right corner. 【1 celestial credit.】 Lu laughed once. Even scam software knew how to humiliate the poor. He attempted a screenshot; the resulting image showed only the ordinary inflight-network login page. No related process appeared in the task manager. He unplugged the machine, but the ruined battery somehow continued to power the screen. Finally, he moved the cursor to the question mark beside his balance.