Location: Nanjin City – Lantern Net Node THREAD-03
Codename: "Pledge City"
THREAD-03 wasn't built with code.
It was built with people—and oaths.
Every official, every civil leader, every schoolchild above age ten had signed the Orchid Protocol Pledge, a seemingly symbolic statement of unity. But behind it lay layered biometric loyalty bonds—neural suggestions encoded into city-wide public service.
Lan Ke called it "Orchid's insurance policy against conscience."
Now, Lin Feng was here.
Nanjin – Cathedral of Civic Memory
The cathedral looked religious, but it wasn't. Its stained-glass windows displayed data clusters. Its altar held not a cross, but a neural archive.
And seated atop the central stair, hands resting calmly on her knees, was the architect of THREAD-03:
Ma Xiuyun.
She wasn't born in a lab. She volunteered.
"The first willing successor," Lan Ke had whispered, horrified.
Inside the Cathedral
Xiuyun's voice echoed through the chamber.
"You burned Yunzhou. You disrupted THREAD-02. Very clever."
She stood slowly. No fear. No hostility.
"But this isn't a city built on wires or AI. This is a city of promises. And you can't hack a vow."
Lin said nothing. He walked toward her, measured.
"You think Orchid didn't plan for disruption?" she asked. "She did. She planned you."
He stopped.
"She told me: the day Lin Feng steps into Pledge City, offer him a deal."
She raised her hand.
From the side doors, dozens of figures entered—men and women in uniforms. But their faces… he knew them.
From the old files. From before.
Some of them were survivors.
Some of them were supposed to be dead.
Xiuyun smiled.
"She kept them. Just in case."
Outside – Crimson Circle Surveillance Van
Su Qingyue stared at the facial scans in disbelief.
"These aren't clones. They're real. People he saved during the Golden Years. Children from his old orphanage. Former agents who vanished."
Lan Ke whispered, "Orchid didn't kill them. She repurposed them."
Back in the Cathedral
Xiuyun descended the steps.
"This is the choice, Lin Feng. Burn this city—and you erase them again. Or walk away, and let this city live."
She held out her hand.
"The cost of freedom doesn't always need to be blood."
For a moment, Lin Feng said nothing.
Then he looked at the faces. Some recognized him. Some looked lost.
Some looked… afraid.
"I don't need to burn this city," Lin said quietly.
Xiuyun narrowed her eyes.
"I just need to show them that they were lied to."
And he pulled a simple device from his pocket.
A projector.
Footage began to play. Original footage.
Orchid's experiments. Neural rewriting. Xiuyun's own voluntary conversion—recorded, not patriotic, but desperate. Her real reason: Orchid promised her family would be reawakened from cryo.
They never were.
The people watched.
Xiuyun's expression cracked.
The oath lines on the walls flickered.
Some of the guards turned. Looked at their own hands.
"I wanted to believe," Xiuyun said, half to herself. "We needed to believe…"
Then she screamed—not from pain, but loss.
The entire neural lattice holding the city together collapsed.
And Pledge City—THREAD-03—woke up.