Chapter Three: Twelve Water Stations

The fifteen-minute warning sounded. The faceless promoters stepped forward together. Lin Xi seized an exposed fiber and cut it with her ticket punch. Sparks erupted. The counter's fourth cell lit. The stadium groaned. The wall turned translucent. Instead of rebar, inverted seats hung beyond it. Blurred spectators pressed their hands against the other side, separated from Lin Xi by a membrane. They had no faces, but all wore the same old-fashioned child's scarf. Han's calm shattered. “Don't touch the lines!” Cheng Ye smashed open an equipment door with an extinguisher. A spiral stair descended behind it. They rushed inside and locked the iron door.