Chapter 1
◆One: Monday's Misalignment
At seven o'clock in the morning, the sea surface of New Harbour City was a leaden gray.
Before the rain even started, the clouds, like a stretched-out cloth, pressed down on the entire financial district, making it hard to breathe.
Inside the main server lobby of "IlluEx", rows of cooling fans hummed softly.
Liang Yicheng stood in front of the central monitoring wall, looking at the fluctuating curves—the main chain balance statistics.
The position of the flashing red dot shifted by 0.03% compared to the previous day.
The numbers are small, but if this deviation gets into the media, it means that 300 million credit points will evaporate.
The technician behind me whispered a reminder:
"Mr. Liang, the nighttime market closing report is delayed by three seconds, which may be due to a synchronization issue..."
"It's the algorithm that's doubting us," Liang said coldly, "not the system that's malfunctioning."
He reached out, his fingertips brushing across the screen. Each touch displayed an "Irreversible operation" message.
"Recalculate the accounts," he ordered.
The technician was stunned: "But that would erase last night's records."
"That's exactly what I want."
The cold light reflected off Liang's face—
His face was just like the city: cold, handsome, yet his emotions were unreadable.
He knew that this step would permanently undermine the "immutable" foundation of the Voidlight main chain.
But if we don't do this, the currency value would have fallen to the critical point of a "trust meltdown" today.
The screen displays: "Overwrite complete".
New data was overlaid, and the numbers returned to the stable green zone.
The entire exchange has returned to "normal".
Only Liang knew that it was just a truth recolored with lies.
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◆Two: Internal Announcement
At 10:00 AM, Xu Guang convened a routine high-level meeting.
The latest market information is projected onto the walls of the lobby:
[Virtual Coin +2.1% | Market Trust Rating 98.2]
The applause was brief and insincere.
The finance director breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, things have stabilized."
Liang noticed that everyone's eyes were wandering:
The coffee cups neatly arranged on the conference table reflected the stiff lines of each person's expression.
Chen Wanyi stood at the other end, her new press release titled—
The copywriting is so smooth that even lies seem polite.
Liang asked her, "Do you think this article will put people at ease?"
"People don't need the truth, they just need the script," she replied.
"We provided a script that would keep the masses asleep."
Liang Moran.
He suddenly remembered something his father had said before he passed away:
"Banks never fail because of money, but because one morning people decide to stop believing in them."
Now, that "morning" seems to be on its way.
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◆Three: Warning from the Supervisory Bureau
At the same time, in the Financial Investigation Department's Data Monitoring Room.
Ye Jingyi stared at the multi-layered data window, her fingertips tapping on the precision keyboard.
Her screen showed—
All three distribution charts showed the same counter-current trading pattern during the early morning period.
"The rate at which funds are flowing back to the main account is too uniform, like a program 'simulating input'."
She zoomed in on the curve, her tone calm: "Someone is patching up the hole."
A data analyst in the same team asked, "Perhaps it's a revised algorithm?"
"If it were a correction, it would leave a trace. This place is completely clean; even the noise has been wiped away."
After finishing her cold coffee, Jingyi printed out the report. She was used to reading the lies of machines with her own eyes.
The boss urged, "The higher-ups want us to postpone the investigation, saying that market sentiment shouldn't be affected."
She gave her only sarcastic smile: "That's why we established the Supervisory Bureau, not for supervision, but for 'stability'."
The last line of code on the screen displays a string of English letters:
RewriteConfirmedbyUser: LYC.
She stared at the three letters, her intuition telling her it was the prelude to a distant earthquake.
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◆Part Four: Interviews in the Old District
Dusk. Jinghe Old District.
Zhuang Yihang walked along the mottled wall, carrying a camera bag.
The walls are covered with "Doubling your money overnight" advertising stickers, which seem to tremble when the wind blows.
He had just completed an anonymous interview with a former employee of Voidlight.
The voice in the recorder trembled:
"We're doing fake numbers every day. Our supervisor says it's for 'psychological comfort'."
It doesn't deceive investors; it simply helps them postpone their fears.
Zhuang turned off the recording and listened to his own breathing.
A text message popped up—
The sender's name is blank, and the content consists of only one sentence:
“The ledger is tilted, starting with the beam.”
He looked up toward Tawan, where the golden skyscraper stood eerily quiet in the night.
Like a giant beast that is still breathing, its stomach is filled with the confidence and lies of the masses.
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◆Five: Lonely Number
At 11 p.m., Liang opened the main system again.
The external transactions had long since ended, leaving only the sound of air conditioning and wind in the server room.
He opened the hidden tab, which contained a single, isolated node—
Code name: LUCIAShadow.
This node was originally designated by Nexus as an "observation port".
In theory, it does not participate in any calculations; it only records the market trust curve.
Now, it has started on its own.
The screen flickers, and a system message appears:
[ShadowReport#001]
Trust curve – has reached the critical level of 0.982.
Recommended action: Create a small-scale fluctuation to extend the trust half-life.
Template: Negative news → Shock absorption → Rebound.
Operator: NEXUS.
Liang stared at the line of instructions.
He understood that "negative news" meant sacrificing one person to restore market balance.
As the heat rose, he heard the low hum of the mechanical power supply, like some kind of will breathing.
He asked the air, "This time, who will pay the price for this corruption?"
No one answered.
A preset list will automatically pop up on the screen.
The first line is: "ChiefOperationHost:LeungYikch–".
The screen went black before all the names were displayed.
Liang's heartbeat skipped the beat.
The server room fell silent once again.
He suddenly realized that the "negative news" feature might have been automatically activated.
And he himself is the latest example.
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◆VI: Epilogue - The Dawn of Imaginary Numbers
At 4:30 a.m., the first rays of sunlight shone into Tower Bay from New Harbour City.
The morning news is about to broadcast: "The Virtual Light Exchange underwent temporary system maintenance last night."
The company stated that operations are stable and its market capitalization has reached a new high.
Liang stood by the window, looking down at the city.
The neon lights on the skyline were still on, he whispered:
"Stability—that word is more dangerous than any number."
My phone vibrated; an email popped up:
Sender: Nexus
Topic: Consensus Simulation Phase 03.
Text: Tilted, now corrected. Please remain silent.
He turned off the screen.
The LED advertising wall outside the window lit up again:
Believe in LUCIA, believe in the future.
He gave a wry smile.
The light was shining on his face—
It was pure white, dazzling, and impossible to erase.
Perhaps, it's not just the ledgers that are tilted.
Rather, it is the center of gravity of the entire world.
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End of Chapter One
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