The dorm room in Building C was a study in contrasts. On one side, the desk was cluttered with half-eaten almond crisps from the bakery and a stack of complex cybersecurity manuals hidden under the generic cover of Intro to Java. On the other side, the desk was unnervingly bare, save for a high-end soldering station and a collection of micro-screwdrivers that were kept in surgical alignment.
Lin Xia kicked off her sneakers, her mind still buzzing from the encounter at the Blue Lotus. She looked over at her roommate, a girl who had become her only true friend at Shengli University over the past few weeks.
"Yu-Yu, you're still up?" Xia asked, softening her voice.
Lin Yu flinched slightly, her shoulders hunching before she realized it was just Xia. She quickly pulled a silk scarf over the hardware project she was working on. "I... I had to finish something for a client," Yu whispered. She looked exhausted, the dark circles under her eyes contrasting sharply with her pale, delicate skin.
To the rest of the school, Lin Yu was just a quiet, scholarship-dependent engineering student who seemed to be at the beck and call of the arrogant Jiang Ruyu. But to Xia, she was just Yu-Yu—the roommate who could fix a fried motherboard in ten minutes flat. Neither of them suspected they shared the same blood, but a strange, biological resonance drew them together.
"You're working too hard," Xia said, sitting on the edge of Yu's bed. She reached out and tucked a stray hair behind Yu's ear, a protective gesture she didn't fully understand. "Is it that Jiang girl again? Is she making you do her senior project?"
Yu looked down at her lap, her fingers twisting the fabric of her worn nightgown. "It's okay, Xia. It's just... the way things are."
Xia's jaw tightened. If only Yu knew that her roommate spent her nights as Nebula, she could probably wipe Jiang Ruyu's digital existence off the map. But she couldn't risk revealing herself—not yet.
"One day, we're both getting out of here," Xia promised. "We'll start our own firm. You build the hardware, I'll write the code. We'll be untouchable."
Yu managed a small, fragile smile. "I'd like that."
Neither realized that they were already working toward a collision. The "Titan-Core" chip Xia had lost was actually a prototype Yu had built in secret and hidden in a library locker, only for it to be intercepted by the university's authorities.
The Audit
The next morning, the campus was abuzz. The Student Council—an annoying, villainous group of elite students who acted as the "enforcement arm" for the city's rich families—had declared a "Surprise Integrity Audit".
Gu Yanchen stood near the back of the Grand Hall, leaning against a marble pillar with a look of practiced boredom. He didn't wear the gold-braided blazer of the elite; he wore a simple white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. To the passing Student Council members, he was just a "mediocre" student with a 50% average—not even worth their glance. They had no idea he was currently mirroring the university's security feed to his private server.
Beside the podium stood Jiang Ruyu, the head of the council's "Morality Branch." She scanned the crowd, her eyes landing on Lin Xia with a flash of pure malice.
"We have received a tip," Ruyu announced, her voice amplified through the speakers. "That a certain scholarship student has been using illegal signal jammers to disrupt university servers. This is a level-one violation."
The hall went silent. Every head turned toward Lin Xia.
Yanchen's eyes sharpened. He stood perfectly still, his obsidian gaze fixed on Xia. He wanted to see how she would play this. Would she crumble, or would the "Nebula" he sensed at dinner show her teeth?
"Lin Xia, please step forward for a device inspection," Ruyu commanded, a smirk playing on her lips. She had already arranged for a jammer to be planted in Xia's bag that morning.
Xia stood up, her face a mask of calm. As she walked toward the stage, she felt a light tug on her sleeve. It was Yu, her face pale with worry. Yu slipped something small and cold into Xia's hand—a tiny, silver-threaded device.
"Trust the frequency," Yu whispered.
Xia reached the podium. Ruyu snatched Xia's bag and dumped its contents onto the table. Sure enough, a small, black buzzing device fell out.
"There it is!" Ruyu cried. "A signal jammer! Expulsion is the only—"
Pop.
Suddenly, the giant LED screens behind the podium flickered to life. Instead of the university logo, they showed a live recording of the library's hallway from two hours ago. The footage clearly showed the Family Butler—the man who served the Jiang family—sneaking into the girls' dorm and planting the device in Xia's bag.
The hall erupted in gasps. Ruyu's face went from triumph to a sickly, ashen grey.
Gu Yanchen watched from the shadows, a slow, predatory smirk forming on his lips. He didn't move to help, but his fingers danced across the screen of his phone, ensuring the footage remained pinned to the screens despite the council's frantic attempts to shut it down.
"It seems," Yanchen muttered to himself, his voice a low hum, "the top student and the charity case have more secrets than the entire Student Council combined."
He looked at Xia, then at the trembling Yu. The game wasn't just starting; it was evolving.
The pulse of the city was beating. The Architect was controlling the system from the bottom. Nebula was fighting from the top. And the Shadow Twin was waiting for the frequency to change.