Chapter Five: A Chorus of Useless Gifts

Class Zero entered the sewers. Chen Mo listened through pipes. Suspended Dust drew footsteps and currents in Lin's sight. Su Mi used Late Echo to shift false commands by half a second, sending pursuers into passages they had just abandoned. The third key waited in a windowless vault. Han had turned its metal shell into an extension of his senses. Any touch would alert him. Lin loaded Minor Chill, Bittering, and Hollow Hearing. “Is he making the vault a bad glass of ice water?” the commentator laughed. Lin chilled one side of the lock and made water in the fire pipes faintly bitter. Flavor lacked force, but it traced every leaking seam. Hollow Hearing mapped cavities, and bitter water marked the pipes.