The door to Supply Room 2F-East opened with a heavy click. The air inside was cold, smelling of metal and sharp solvent. Sodium light buzzed overhead, glinting off iron benches and racks of tools. Proctors stood watchful as a clerk unlocked the room under their gaze.
Qin Ye stood at the threshold. "Clause 9.7. Chain-of-custody protocol. Witness gloves. No solo handling." His voice was flat, a statement of fact.
The head proctor nodded. Gloves were issued. Stamps were readied. The log was opened.
---
A faint glyph was carved into the stone lintel above the door.
[Daily Sign-In available.]
[Location: Lintel Glyph.]
[Sign-In? Yes / No]
Yes.
[Ding! Sign-In successful!]
[Reward: Trace Thread (Lv.1, 20 breaths — highlight matching press residues/strike patterns) + Audit Key Slip (1 use — supervised cabinet open with auto-log).]
---
Inside: Press & Dies.
The stamp press sat on a central bench, its metal still faintly warm. Racks of dies and shims lined the walls. Solvent trays gave off a pungent tang. A stack of invoices lay neatly to the side. The Device Witness orb hummed to life as a proctor activated it, its lens scanning slowly.
Qin Ye activated the Trace Thread. For twenty breaths, faint residue halos became visible to his eyes, connecting the press to the vendor die—the broken circle and chevron—and to scattered metal filings on the bench.
---
Chain-of-Custody Moves.
He didn't touch anything first. He pointed. "Evidence Seal on the unfinished die. On the badge programmer. On the micro-weight pouch."
With each command, a soft chime sounded. A luminous seal settled over each item, timestamped in the log.
"Rule 4.1. Bag and label before removal," he stated.
The clerk, mirroring his calm precision, began the process, using tweezers and evidence bags. The procedural face-slap was delivered in silence.
---
Friction & Test.
A He-line aide stepped forward from the doorway. "This is a contamination risk. The audit scope doesn't extend to issuer tools."
The head proctor didn't look at him. He read from a posted clause. "Audit scope includes all apparatus and the tools used to create or alter them." A stamp thudded onto the log. The room remained open.
---
Mid Discovery — The Second Mark.
The Trace Thread guided Qin Ye's eyes. He carefully lifted a clean paper strip and pressed the half-finished die onto it under proctor supervision. The impression showed a partial arc with a sharp, angular serif—nothing like the known vendor sigils.
His eyes found a requisition chit in a ledger. A segment code was noted: "Proc-Sub2 / Lot M—". The issuer was a sub-unit, a level above the handler.
---
Complication — Clean Cycle Trigger.
Vent fans surged with a sudden roar. A scheduled solvent flush began, its spray nozzles hissing to life, threatening to wash away the fragile residue.
Qin Ye moved. One gloved hand shielded the key filings. With the other, he willed the Audit Key Slip to activate. A evidence cabinet lock clicked open, its contents now auto-logged. He slid the tray containing the dies inside just as the solvent mist reached the bench, preserving the evidence through procedure, not force.
[Ding! Micro-Goal: "Preserve the Residue."]
[Reward: +200,000 Spirit Stones; Evidence Handling +1 (situational).]
---
Thread Close — Issuer Trail.
He aligned the paper impression against the hidden corner of the requisition chit. The Trace Thread, in its final moments, highlighted the identical strike vector. The match was perfect. The log automatically linked the press, the dies, the chit, and the programmer. The chain now extended from Clerk #47 upward to Procurement Sub-Unit 2.
---
[Ding! Side Quest updated: Trace the Hand (Stage 3 complete — issuer flagged: Procurement Sub-Unit 2; hearing scheduled).]
[Ding! Optional Objective unlocked: "Present chain-of-custody at the hearing without delay." — Reward: Technique Cache (procedural, locked).]
[Ding! Main Quest updated — Inner Gate Trial: 2 days.]
The corridor outside the room went dark for a single, suspended breath. Then, a hearing docket board on the far wall flickered to life. A new line item glistened, the ink still wet under the lamplight: Proc-Sub2 Review, Public Session. The letters dried like a challenge.