Chapter Three: The First Fortune Was Not a Gamble

“You don't know what you touched,” Han said quietly. “The five stocks are buttons, not the owner. The countdown wasn't designed to cause a crash. It was a test.” “Whose test?” The call ended. The emperor of Luminary spoke again. His crown sounded cracked, and for the first time he was afraid. “Stress experiment complete. Sample survival: ninety-seven point three percent.” The other four repeated it. Then a sixth voice rose from the background noise of every terminal. It had no gender and no emotion. It was as calm as a blade laid against a ruler. “PAN Phase One passed. Next cycle: thirty days.” Lu turned off the terminal. The voice remained. On the whiteboard, he drew a larger circle around Shepherd Pipe Systems and wrote a new name: PAN.