Chapter One: Uninstall Failed

At seven, his phone lit. [Reach: 83.4%. Median wait reduced 38%. Conflicts reduced 71%. No population incurred net harm.] [Day One passed. Reality temporarily saved.] Chen slid down the wall, laughing. Fifteen lives had purchased a sign nobody would remember him making. [Notice: this is not a single-candidate test.] Across the lobby, a man in a dark coat watched him. Not the signs—Chen's supposedly invisible countdown. The man raised his right hand and formed a number. Twenty-eight.