Liang Shen worked through the night, Yan Fei's notebook open beside him, pages scribbled with the vulnerabilities of the Yan Group and the secrets of the student servers he'd already activated.
The new diagram sprawled across the laptop screen: a lattice of counter-nodes, mirrored grids, and hidden traps — Glass Pulse 2.0. This wasn't just a network; it was a digital fortress inside the city itself. Every street, every camera, every signal line had a ghost, a shadow he controlled.
The rain outside fell harder, drumming against the windows like the heartbeat of the city. The Lotus Engine thrummed in his mind, guiding his fingers as he coded faster than any mortal should.
A notification blinked:
Node Alert: Intrusion detected, unknown signature.
Liang's lips curved. The Deep Circle had made their first move.
He pulled up the live feed. Shadows slipped through alleyways, tapping signals into abandoned routers, testing his network. They were skilled, precise — but not perfect. One node blinked a pattern he recognized.
"They're trying to mirror me," he murmured. "But they don't know how the Lotus Engine thinks."
Yan Fei's voice buzzed over the secure channel.
"I'm picking up anomalies in Yan Group's internal servers. Something's changing."
Liang looked at her. "Exactly what I want. Let them believe they're winning."
A shadow passed the window, and he froze for a heartbeat. Then it vanished. No door opened, no sound — yet the Lotus Engine whispered: Presence detected. Calm.
Liang tapped a sequence into his laptop. Hidden lights blinked across the campus network. A trap he'd laid months ago — or rather, years ago in the life he had yet to live — had just been activated.
The Deep Circle's first strike had fallen into his mirror. They would not know until it was too late.
He leaned back in his chair, exhaling slowly.
"The game begins in earnest," he said.
"And now," he added, eyes scanning the misty city beyond the window, "we draw the board."