Chapter Two: Migration Confirmation

On one recovered frame, a scanner displayed five names. Cheng's appeared not among the casualties but beside another field: Project: Personhood Reconstruction Vessel. Status: Blank. A black page covered the footage. “Product holder detected at origin node. Auction moved forward.” A ten-minute countdown began. “Close it,” Xu said. Before Cheng could move, the dead station's speakers came alive. A man with Cheng's exact voice said, “Cheng Ye, if you want to know which of us is the copy, don't leave.”