Chapter Two: Beyond the Nine Frames

Tang slapped Chen's shoulder afterward. “You helped with the line. I'll request an extra two thousand on your bonus.” “Two thousand?” Zhixia asked. Tang raised an eyebrow. “Too little?” Chen smiled. Using two rejected cuts, he had forced a billion-dollar automaker down the only road left open. Tang thought he was bargaining over a bonus. “It's enough,” Chen said. “I need more hard drives.” That night, he copied every rejected cut onto an offline drive. At V21B, the system reported ACCESS DENIED, though Chen had created the file. Every screen in the company went black for one second. When they returned, a black-and-gold crown appeared briefly in the project system.