The first light of dawn barely pierced the clouds over New Hangzhou. Rain had stopped, leaving streets slick and reflective, like black glass stretching endlessly. Liang Shen stood on the rooftop of an abandoned office building, Yan Fei beside him, both watching the city awaken.
Every hidden node, every mirror in Glass Pulse 2.0, pulsed faintly, waiting. The Deep Circle had launched a coordinated assault overnight, probing his network, testing every blind spot. They thought they had momentum.
"They're bold," Yan Fei said, eyes scanning the skyline. "But they've underestimated you."
Liang didn't answer. He tapped a sequence into his laptop, sending commands to the phantom nodes across the city. The mirrors he had built reflected the Deep Circle's attacks, redirecting them into dead zones. But tonight, he wouldn't just defend — he would strike.
He activated the first layer of the Lotus Engine's hidden algorithm. Across New Hangzhou, streetlights flickered in unison, drones pivoted silently, and Wi-Fi signals pulsed like heartbeat warnings. One by one, the Deep Circle's agents felt interference: suits jammed, communication scrambled, surveillance feeds redirected.
A secure channel blinked:
Unknown: Impossible… how are you seeing us?
Liang smiled faintly. "Because I don't just see your network. I live in it."
Using the mirrored nodes as bait, he triggered a cascading lockdown in the areas where Deep Circle operatives had clustered. Holographic projections of the city streets appeared on his screen, each movement anticipated, each path blocked.
Yan Fei watched, awe in her eyes. "You're… rewriting the city in real-time."
"Not rewriting," Liang said softly, "revealing the possibilities."
Outside, the intruders tried to retreat, but every escape route had been anticipated. They were trapped in a digital labyrinth. The city itself had become Liang's weapon, and the Deep Circle realized, too late, that the boy they underestimated had become the Architect of Glass — a ghost who controlled the heartbeat of New Hangzhou.
Liang exhaled, feeling the Lotus Engine hum in satisfaction. "Move two complete," he murmured. "And the board is still mine."