Chapter Four: The Boy Who Remembered the Score

“You've triggered spatial recursion,” he said. “I can take you to the control room. We can have the match officially abandoned.” Cheng Ye shielded Zhou. “You tried to capture us.” Han glanced at the stretcher bar. “When? This is our first meeting.” There was no flaw in his surprise. Silver vests were searching the crowd. Lin Xi could not tell whether Han was lying or whether the reset had erased their meeting underground from him. “Something is sealed below,” Han said, raising empty hands. “I only know the wiring was altered. If you don't believe me, look.” The match clock had frozen at 23:00, but smaller red digits had appeared beneath it: 00:37, 00:38, 00:39. Another clock was counting upward.