The fallout of the "Imperial Jade Gala" was exactly what I had hoped for: utter, bureaucratic paralysis. The Elder Council couldn't arrest me because I had technically offered them a "service agreement," and they couldn't ignore me because I had literally made them weightless for three seconds.
I was back in my dorm room, staring at a bowl of lukewarm noodles, while Fatty Bo was vibrating with excitement next to me.
"Ren! Have you seen the stock market?" Bo shoved his tablet in my face. "There's a rumor that a new tech startup called 'Dao-Dash' just secured a secret partnership with the Lin-Gong Group. The 'Stability Futures' are through the roof! People think it's an AI-driven earthquake prevention app!"
"It's just a hobby, Bo," I sighed, slurping a noodle. "A very... high-maintenance hobby."
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST, YOUR 'GIG-ECONOMY' BLUFF HAS ACCIDENTALLY TRIGGERED A SPECULATIVE BUBBLE. I AM CURRENTLY RECEIVING 4,000 PINGS PER SECOND FROM VENTURE CAPITALISTS ASKING FOR AN API KEY.]
There was a sharp, rhythmic knock on the door. Before I could stand up, the door slid open to reveal Lin Yue. She wasn't in her gala dress; she was wearing a sharp, charcoal-grey power suit and holding a black briefcase that looked like it contained the secrets of the universe.
"Congratulations, Ren," she said, stepping over a pile of Bo's dirty laundry with the grace of a gazelle. "I've just convinced my father that 'Dao-Dash' is the future of urban infrastructure. I am now your Chief Operating Officer. I've already drafted the non-disclosure agreements and filed for a patent on 'Resonance-Based Stabilization'."
I choked on my noodle. "COO? I didn't even agree to a CEO!"
"You're the Founder, Ren. You provide the 'vibrations,' I provide the market dominance," she said, sitting on the edge of my desk and opening a holographic projection. "But the Elder Council isn't sitting idle. They've launched a competing 'Patch'—they're calling it 'Project Firmament'."
"Project Firmament?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.
"It's a network of high-frequency towers they're building across the sectors," Lin Yue explained. "They claim it will 'harmonize' the city. But my Observer sense tells me those towers aren't for harmony. They're for Suppression. They're trying to drown out your frequency with their own dark-code."
Despite being at the center of a reality-warping corporate war, I still had a "Structural Engineering" midterm on Monday.
The next few days were a blur of absurdly high-stakes multitasking. I would sit in the library, pretending to study the load-bearing capacity of steel beams, while secretly sending "Stability Pings" through the city's water pipes to counter the Council's new towers.
[DAO MESSAGE: ALERT! THE COUNCIL HAS PLACED A 'SUPPRESSION NODE' BENEATH THE CAMPUS CAFETERIA. IT IS CURRENTLY CAUSING THE ESPRESSO MACHINES TO VIBRATE AT A FREQUENCY THAT MAKES PEOPLE FEEL... COMPLIANT.]
Not the coffee, I thought, my anger flaring. That's a line you don't cross.
I didn't leave my seat. I simply tapped my pen against the table in a rhythmic pattern—Morse Code for 'Sovereign Rejection.' The vibration traveled through the floor, hit the suppression node, and caused it to invert.
A moment later, a loud pop echoed from the cafeteria. The "Compliance Frequency" was replaced by a surge of "Pure Enthusiasm." Suddenly, three hundred exhausted engineering students stood up and began cheering for calculus.
While I was busy making the campus over-caffeinated, the Council's "Project Firmament" was going live in the lower sectors.
Deep in a subterranean lab, the Envoys were monitoring the data-feeds. "The Li Ren frequency is persistent. He is using the city's own infrastructure against us. Initiate the 'Entropy Patch'. If we cannot control the Anchor, we will make the ground he stands on uninhabitable."
They weren't just fighting me anymore; they were trying to "Update" reality into something I couldn't fix with a simple vibration. And in the background, the slumbering Zhou Min was being used as a biological battery—his dormant golden energy being siphoned off to power their dark-code.
Tuesday Morning: 09:00 AM
I walked to my midterm exam, Lin Yue walking beside me, her tablet constantly chirping with "Market Alerts" that were actually "Reality Breach Warnings."
"You ready for the exam, Ren?" she asked, a playful smirk on her face. "Or are you too busy 'managing' your subscribers?"
"I'm ready for the exam, Lin Yue," I said, adjusting my backpack. "But I think your 'Project Firmament' just hit a bug. Look at the fountain."
In the center of the campus courtyard, the water wasn't flowing down. It was floating in mid-air, forming the shape of a giant, middle-finger-shaped "Update Error" icon.
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST... THAT WAS A BIT PETTY, DON'T YOU THINK?]
They touched the coffee, System. All bets are off.