The morning mist had barely lifted from a remote forest clearing when Yang Kai arrived. His expression was calm, but those who knew him could see the faint gleam of anticipation in his eyes. Today was not an ordinary day.

The readings were impossible. Yang Kai stared at the screen, his breath catching. If the data was correct, everything they thought they knew about the ancient ruin was wrong.

A crisp cracking sound echoed from his core — he had broken through! The implications were staggering. He had to tell someone — but who could he trust?

A sound from the corridor made him freeze. Someone was coming. Yang Kai quickly closed the terminal and slipped into the shadows. The door slid open, and a figure stepped inside.

It was Li Qiye. They locked eyes, and in that moment, Yang Kai knew that the game had changed. Whatever happened next, there was no going back to the way things were before.

Far away, on a mountain peak/spaceship/deck that no one had noticed until now, an old man/a woman/an AI watched the events unfold through a scrying orb/hologram/screen. "So it begins," it murmured. "The real test is yet to come."