Chapter Three: The Phantom Bid

Northport won 2–1. Costaro had a goal and an assist. At the press conference, a reporter raised the leaked screenshot. Lin published the full terms: six hundred thousand up front, not two million. The nightclub image was three years old. Reporters traced its watermark to a consultancy owned by Hall's wife. Su suspended Hall on the spot. Outside the ground, the fraud banners were replaced: SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND BOUGHT US VICTORY. That evening a twelve-million-euro offer arrived for Costaro. His value had multiplied twentyfold in three days. “Sell?” Su asked. “No.” Lin pushed it back. “Buy low, sell high doesn't mean sell at the first high. He takes Northport somewhere every giant fears first.” The system unfolded a page that had never existed.