Chapter Four: Trusted Time

Cheng's frozen personhood package topped the central price board. At a query terminal, their certificate revealed the public transaction chain. In three years, Han Ce had purchased 427 employee skills for Bedrock. Purchases usually occurred one day before dismissal notices. The latest seller was Luo Qing from the modeling team. Last week she had suddenly become unable to write the algorithm she designed and was fired because her “ability no longer matched her résumé.” Her intuition had been divided among six new employees. “They take the ability first,” Cheng said, “then use its absence to justify firing the owner.” Xu pointed to the extraction score. Contributor: Cheng Ye.