Chapter Five: A Chorus of Useless Gifts

In seven days, Lin touched seventeen abilities. Bittering made water taste bitter. Late Echo delayed sound by half a second. Slick Surface removed friction beneath a shoe. Hollow Hearing sensed cavities within twelve meters. Minor Chill lowered an object's temperature by two degrees. Every owner had been laughed off an assessment stage. Every gift contained ten minutes in which its owner refused to surrender. Lin still had three slots. Unloaded echoes remained as gray clips in his mind, but switching required three seconds of concentration—long enough to die in combat. Su Mi arranged them into six preset scores: reconnaissance, breach, containment, rescue, deception, and demolition. “Why demolition?” Tao asked.