Chapter Five: The Black Scoreboard

Han handed them a circuit diagram. “The main breaker is below. Cut it and the event system stops.” On monitor forty-seven, Zhou saw referee Roman write on his left wrist. He hid it before the camera could focus. They intercepted him in the players' tunnel. “You wrote DON'T TRUST THE EARPIECE,” Lin Xi said. Roman seized his cuff. He dreamed repeatedly of full time and his daughter's voice asking for one more minute. Each time he woke, his wrist ached as if he had written for hours. “Abandon the match,” Lin Xi urged. Without authorization, he could only suspend it. A girl's laugh sounded in his earpiece. He tore it off, but agreed only that a total blackout would justify abandonment. Cheng Ye threw the main breaker.