The Network meeting was in a dingy warehouse in North Jakarta.
Rama stood outside the rusted metal door, checking the address Yanto had texted him. In Timeline 1, he hadn't discovered this place until Week 3. Hadn't known the Network existed. Had wasted precious weeks grinding alone, paranoid and isolated.
Timeline 2 was already different.
He knocked—three times, pause, twice. The pattern Yanto had mentioned in his message.
The door cracked open. A face peered out—young, suspicious, hand probably on a weapon.
"Password?"
Rama almost laughed. In Timeline 1, by the time he'd found them, they'd dropped the password system. Too many Players joining. But now, Day 1, they were still cautious.
"I don't have one," Rama said honestly. "Yanto invited me. Tell him Rama Kusuma is here."
"Yanto doesn't invite randos—"
"Tell him I have information about void entities. Level 70-plus threats. Arriving in 54 days. And if he wants humanity to survive, he'll see me."
