Chapter Four: A Dead Man’s Twenty-Million-Credit Debt

【Upon fulfillment, the death certificate enters dispute and the signing is delayed twenty-four hours.】 【Causal loop valid. Verification passed.】 Pei had to buy to keep Prism’s death from stripping his borrowed identity. Yet the act of buying would keep Prism alive. A trap that closed only on dead men. With three minutes left, Queen bid 20.01 million. Pei did nothing. Liability Sight drew a pale line from Elena’s offer toward the cockpit. 【Cost: the captain’s second critical judgment.】 She had used the first to steer the plane toward Cloud Capital. Now she wanted a company’s fate to purchase another. Lu sent Su a private contract. 【Lend me three million. Collateral: Prophet’s true name.】 【You don’t own it yet.】 【That’s why it’s cheap.】