Chapter Four: The Black Tower's Stomach

The floor folded. Server racks closed like teeth. Camera showed ten seconds ahead: a tube piercing Lin Wu, Cheng Cheng gone, Cheng Ye voluntarily inserting Echo into the core. He pressed the screen to his chest. “In ten seconds, I'll make a mistake. Lin Wu, expose the data flow. Cheng Cheng, unplug phone forty-two.” “Why forty-two?” Pay showed its desire: 【Someone disobeys the arrangement. Price: all remaining identity.】 Cheng Cheng tore it free. Gold light stopped for half a second. Lighthouse caught that instant and shone the flow backward. Every image of Zhou Que closed its eyes. The future arrived. Cheng Ye lost ten seconds. He awoke with Echo one centimeter from the core port. Cheng Cheng had jammed phone forty-two between them.