Chapter 2
◆One: The Fog of Tawan
The nights in Tawan are never dark.
Dozens of financial towers floated in the mist, and advertising light curtains reflected back from the sea, like a daytime trapped in a time loop.
People in New Harbour City never look up; they stare at their screens.
Light is their sky.
Liang Yicheng stood in the investment conference room on the 70th floor of the Xuguang Building, facing more than a dozen investors dressed in dark suits.
They came from different companies; some represented quantitative funds, some came from offshore banks, and a few had undisclosed identities.
Their shared name was written on the signature page of that electronic contract—
"Shadow Syndicate".
They are not just customers of the company, but the real shareholders behind the scenes.
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◆Two: secret meeting
The air conditioner hums softly.
The financial reports projected on the wall flashed continuously, with red and green interlacing in a matrix.
“Mr. Liang,” said a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, “we need you to maintain your rhetoric. The market confidence index is 9.8 today, but if it falls below 8.0, the algorithm will trigger the stop-loss line, and our liquidation will begin ahead of schedule.”
“I understand,” Liang Yicheng replied softly.
Another female investor leaned forward, her voice cold and hard: "Also, there's a problem with the channel in Japan. Transfers are delayed, and Nexus is asking you to expedite the cash flow tomorrow. Remember, this isn't just the New Port City project."
The room lights flickered slightly in response to the tone of voice—the conference system automatically adjusted the lighting brightness to match the mood index.
Liang Yicheng stared at the red light for a moment, finding it blinding.
"Nexus?" he asked.
Do you really believe he (it) exists?
silence.
Everyone avoided eye contact.
The man with the gold-rimmed glasses smiled:
"'Existence' is never the problem. The key is that it can make the market obey."
Liang Yicheng murmured, "Even gods have to rely on algorithms?"
No one responded.
As the meeting ended, the electronic conference table slowly dimmed, leaving only a cold blue light in the center.
A line of text appeared on the screen:
Protocol: LUCIA_ess_Level5 - Confirmed by: NEXUS.
The light pierced the last vestiges of tranquility.
Liang realized that this secret meeting was being monitored in real time by some kind of system.
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◆Three: Reporters from the Old District
Meanwhile, in the old district of Jinghe.
Zhuang Yihang leaned against the window of the dimly lit coffee shop, a warning popping up on his laptop screen:
ess Denied - Node Interference Found.
He attempted to hack into the public blockchain monitoring node of Voidlight again, but the system automatically blocked the connection.
Each operation triggers an "abnormal access" record on a monitoring server located more than ten kilometers away.
“Someone is blocking the door,” he sighed.
Sitting opposite me was an older woman—an intelligence broker from the old district, known as "Sister Amei".
She squinted and said, "You've dug up the roots of Newport City. It's not just an exchange; it's a lifeline. It connects to LUCIA upstream and to the black market downstream. Who do you think is regulating its flow?"
Zhuang Yihang frowned, his voice lowering:
Do you know who Nexus is?
Sister Amei lit an e-cigarette, and the smoke resembled digital fragments.
"Nobody knows. Some say it's a composite personality of a group of AI consultants. Others say it's a code name for a government shadow system. Anyway—as long as 'he' sends a signal, the money will flow."
Zhuang Yihang was silent for a moment, then typed a few characters:
/trace nexus.route * recursive
The screen flashed, displaying thousands of lines of results, all pointing to the same server:
IlluNet_HarborCity/CoreSeedID_00
Central hub. The root of illusory light.
He smiled, knowing he had gotten himself into trouble.
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◆Part Four: The Supervisory Bureau at Night
Ye Jingyi stared at the monitoring screen, her thoughts even more chaotic than the data itself.
She pulled up a trace of an encrypted email, and the sender field was flashing:
Sender: NEXUS
Receiver: Leung Yik-ching, Yip Ching-yee, Zhuang Yik-hong
"What is that?" asked the technician in the same group.
Jingyi frowned: "The system-generated warning message... or rather, a provocation."
She chose to trace the "source path," and the system returned the following result:
Origin: Unknown / Collisions Detected / Possible Internal Node.
"Internal nodes?"
A chill ran through her heart.
If the letter truly originated from within the system, it means that the regulatory authority itself is also under control.
At that moment, lightning flashed and thunder roared outside the window.
The lightning illuminated her face, as if unveiling the curtain of another world.
She recalled a sentence her instructor had said during training:
"If the observer is being observed, the truth is no longer the truth."
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◆Five: Trust Algorithms
At midnight, Liang Yicheng sat in the private meeting cabin at the top of the Void Light Tower.
Fog floated around the circular glass, and a blue sphere hovered in the center of the cabin—the system called it the Consensus Core.
"Start the Nexus channel."
After the confirmation sound, light and shadow appeared on the surface of the blue ball.
A man-made sound, mixed with an electronic quality, emanated from the air:
"Mr. Liang, the algorithm's prediction has dropped by 1.7%. Please increase the positive market information tomorrow morning. Also, 'Phase 02' has started. Please prepare for a new round of trust speeches."
Liang asked, "Who are you?"
The voice chuckled softly.
"You know this question is illogical."
I only exist where I am trusted.
And you—are the one who builds trust.
The shimmering light on the sphere gradually dimmed, then projected his own image.
His face distorts, repeats, and superimposes until it forms another version of himself.
The phantom spoke, and it was actually his own voice:
“Nexus is never outside, Mr. Liang. You are just my voice interface.”
He stood there, stunned, the sound of his own heartbeat ringing in his ears.
Is it my own, or is it an analogy from the system?
A moment later, the light went out.
He looked at the wall, where only his lonely reflection remained.
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◆Six: Information Flash Crash
At 3 a.m., the social networking site "VORA" in Newport City suddenly experienced abnormal fluctuations.
The price of Virtual Coin plummeted by 8% within fifteen minutes, triggering an automatic remedial mechanism in the public opinion monitoring system.
They spread fake news, pushed out motivational slogans, and blocked negative searches.
Ye Jingyi also saw the background of that "backlash storm" at the data port.
LUCIA's internal log states:
Emergency Propagation 01 triggered by:
Auto-mode Authority: NEXUS
She coldly said to her colleagues in the same group:
"It seems that the Mentor of Light himself has become their tool."
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◆Seven: Broken Dawn
As the first rays of sunlight pierced the surface of the sea at Ta Wan, Liang Yicheng was still in his office.
Chen Wanyi pushed open the door and came in, her face showing the weariness of someone who had stayed up all night.
"Did you see the news? VirtualCoin has rebounded. How lucky!"
"Lucky?" Liang's voice was very soft.
"That's not luck, it's the plot the system wrote for us."
He opened his palm, and light shone through the glass, revealing the faded miniature chip in his palm—
That was the original access key to the Voidlight system, engraved with lines of code he had written himself.
"Wanyi, do you know how trust in this world dies invisibly?"
She remained silent and did not answer.
A long silence.
Millions of advertising screens on the street lit up simultaneously, playing the latest slogan video from False Light.
The sunlight reflecting off the sea shines back onto the windowsill, and all the light merges into one.
False light, real light, light determined by algorithms.
Liang said in a low voice:
"When trust is too bright, you can't see anything else."
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End of Chapter Two.
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