Chapter One: Free Water

At 6:47 p.m., Lin Xi heard eighty thousand people twist open their bottle caps at once. It wasn't loud, but the precision of it chilled her. Thousands of plastic seals cracked from tier to tier like insects waking on a summer night. She stood beside the turnstiles in East Zone Three, holding half of a rain-softened ticket slip, and looked up at a forest of clear bottles glittering beneath the lights. “Complimentary refreshment for Championship Night!” declared the ribbon screen overhead. Promoters in silver vests pushed carts of Clearwater through the concourses. No one scanned a code or kept count. Blue cartons stood unattended beside fire doors, at corridor bends, even inside evacuation lanes where storage was forbidden.