The threshold of the Master Floor Audit Room was a line of cold brass and humming tension. Sodium lights cast a sickly glow. The air carried the sharp tang of solvent and the faint, warm smell of stamp wax. Cart wheels ticked over stone seams in the distance.
Yue Hong immediately stepped forward, his posture asserting dominance. "Squad leader dictates the flow. Standard—"
"Clause 5.4," Qin Ye interrupted, his voice flat as the stone floor. "Route parity requires equal access. No leader priority." A proctor nearby stamped the log sheet in confirmation.
As Qin Ye stepped across the threshold, his boot brushed a discreet brass plate.
[Daily Sign-In available.]
[Location: Audit Room Threshold Plate.]
[Sign-In? Yes / No]
Yes.
[Ding! Sign-In successful!]
[Reward: Squad Thread (Lv.1, 25 breaths — share cadence & micro-timing among three within line-of-sight) + Parity Beacon (1 use — force simultaneous time-stamp at a node for the whole squad).]
---
Segment A — Audit Room Checkpoint.
The sealed evidence tray sat on a central podium under a Device Witness orb. The second die, the dispatch slip, the micro-shim—all visible behind clear plasteen. A junior courier approached. "Routing this to the side bench for preliminary—"
"Clause 7.2," Qin Ye stated. "Evidence under active chain remains in primary view. Request Device Witness replay of seizure log."
The proctor triggered the replay. The mechanical voice echoed briefly. A stamp thudded onto their route card. They moved.
At the exit node, Qin Ye activated the Parity Beacon. A soft chime sounded. All three of their wrist passes registered the exact same nanosecond timestamp.
[Ding! Micro-Goal: "Stamp as One."]
[Reward: +150,000 Spirit Stones; Squad Coordination +3% (situational).]
---
Segment B — Service Corridor 3.
The corridor was a gauntlet of motion. A rolling tool cart "drifted" into their path. A door's logic flipped, allowing only one-way passage. A cross-draft gusted, threatening to shove them off-line.
Qin Ye and Lin Xiu fell into a Shadow Duet Step, their bodies flowing through the narrow gap between cart and wall in perfect, silent sync. Yue Hong, attempting a riskier, wider angle, found himself off-balance. Qin Ye didn't speak. A minimal Blade Nudge with his baton corrected Yue Hong's trajectory, accompanied by a silent thigh-tap cue. The correction was legal, non-damaging, and effective.
As they passed a junction, Qin Ye's eyes caught a faint mark on the floor—a stencil ghost, the ink almost scrubbed away, but the shape unmistakable: the Null Crest, pointing toward the Annex.
[Ding! Micro-Goal: "Hold Triad Line Under Motion."]
[Reward: +150,000 Spirit Stones; Corridor Sense +3% (situational).]
---
Segment C — Supply Room 2F-East.
The door was half-latched. A posted placard glowed: Lockdown Protocol: Simultaneous palm-tap by all squad members required for entry.
Qin Ye activated the Squad Thread. For twenty-five breaths, their breathing, their heartbeats, their micro-movements became a shared rhythm. He didn't speak. He simply raised a hand, counted three silent pulses in his mind, and tapped the plate. Lin Xiu and Yue Hong, pulled by the thread, mirrored the action in perfect unison. The door lock disengaged with a series of satisfying clicks, the log pinging their simultaneous entry.
Inside, on a side bench, sat a roll of pre-inked stamps. The Null Crest was carved into the rubber.
"Evidence Seal on the stamp roll," Qin Ye said to the accompanying proctor. The chime sounded. They did not stop moving.
[Ding! Micro-Goal: "Triad Sync Tap."]
[Reward: +150,000 Spirit Stones; Duo/Trio Timing +2% (situational).]
---
Segment D — Annex Cross-Squeeze.
A timed fan surge roared to life, a wall of air pushing them sideways. Simultaneously, a pallet jack loaded with crates rolled on a "malfunctioning" castor, compressing the lane into a tight squeeze.
Yue Hong tried to dart ahead. "I'll scout the path!"
Qin Ye didn't argue. A Quiet Pivot on his back foot re-squared the entire formation, blocking the premature advance. As Yue Hong stumbled back into line, a non-damaging Blade Nudge with his forearm stabilized him, keeping the triad intact. Leadership asserted through motion, not words.
A proctor monitoring the Device Witness feed spoke to the He-line representative hovering nearby. "Apparatus contact log is clear. No grounds for appeal." The objection was pre-emptively dismissed.
---
Climax — Pre–Final Gate Anomaly.
The corridor monitor flickered. Text scrolled rapidly.
REGISTRY ALERT: Edit attempt on entry [Null Crest]. User: —
LOG: Live Ledger Bind active. Edit blocked.
SYSTEM: Bind challenged. Supervisor key required.
The Final Gate ahead, a massive circular door of polished bronze, flashed with the image of the Null Crest. The ambient amber light shifted toward warning red. With a grinding roar, a heavy security shutter began its inexorable descent from the ceiling, aiming to seal the corridor.
The Squad Thread had five breaths remaining.
Qin Ye made the choice in a heartbeat. He burned the thread, pulling on the shared cadence. He didn't shout a command. He moved.
A sharp inhalation, synchronized across all three of them. A burst of coordinated motion. Silent Steps, precise pivots. They flowed under the descending shutter as one unit.
The heavy metal kissed the floor behind them, the gust of displaced air stirring their robes. They were through. By a finger's width.
[Ding! Micro-Goal: "Advance Under Bind."]
[Reward: +200,000 Spirit Stones; Appeal Resistance +3% (situational).]
---
Ending.
The Final Gate console blinked, the Null Crest vanishing. A single line of text replaced it.
Supervisor key accepted.
From a side door hidden in the shadowed wall, a latch clicked open with soft, deliberate finality. Footsteps echoed—measured, unfamiliar, not the brisk tread of a proctor.
The gate panel pulsed once; the crest's black ring thinned to a blade. Then the corridor held its breath.
[Ding! Integration Timer — 180 breaths remain.]