After Sentinel threw his intellectual challenge into the digital void, the First Response Days dragged into a tense, excruciating silence. With their screens blazing with lines of code and broken conversations, Liang Chen and Wu Tianyu kept a close eye on the shadowy forum, but CipherTruth remained a phantom. Every hour that went by at Horizon Tech increased the pressure, and the ticking of the clock served as a constant reminder of their vulnerability.
Then, late one evening, Liang Chen was startled and his adrenaline shot through the roof when a notification flashed across his private terminal. Deep in the thread where Sentinel's challenge was posted, a new post had surfaced on the forum. It wasn't a straightforward fix or a straightforward admission. Rather, it was a single, tasteful change to his original puzzle that both subtly weakened his premise and increased its complexity. Despite being unsigned, the response exuded CipherTruth with its subtle power and genius.
Liang Chen felt a mixture of intense excitement and frustration as his heart raced. The change was a counter-challenge rather than a comprehensive response, a blatant indication that his gauntlet had been picked up. It was a test of his own comprehension and fortitude, a silent exchange between two enormous brains. His thoughts were already racing as he leaned closer to the screen, analyzing the ramifications of the slight alteration. This was a master's move on the digital chessboard, a psychological reaction as much as a technical one. Then, he was certain that this was the only way to get to Shadow Strike—by first establishing his value to CipherTruth's sharp intellect, which he thought held the secret.
Liang Chen's lips formed a small smile, which is uncommon during these trying times. It was this. The intellectual slugging he had been longing for, the genuine interaction he could not find elsewhere, had started. He experienced a rush of vitality and a sense of direction that went beyond his company's survival. As Sentinel, Liang Chen was prepared to play the game.