Earlier…
"Is… is this a joke?" Eli whispered, his voice trembling as his eyes locked onto the glowing panel before him.
His throat felt dry, constricted, like something heavy had settled there. "Tell me this is a joke. A punishment of sorts. Right?"
But no matter how much he willed it, the system didn't flicker away. The words remained.
If this was a punishment, it was crueler than anything the system had thrown at him before.
This wasn't a night of forced overstimulation. This wasn't some humiliating task shoved at him at the worst possible time.
This was worse.
Finally, after days of being yanked along by this cursed system, after days of begging for crumbs of insight about Lucien Kim's family, about the family he left behind—finally, it gave him information.
But not the kind he wanted.
Not the kind he could stomach.
His chest squeezed painfully as his gaze darted across the words again, desperate for a mistake. A misprint. Anything.
