The Zero - Sum Game
The transition from warm family homes to the cold, concrete expanse of Sector Seven happened within the span of a single
heartbeat.One moment, ten-year-old
Rulan Lin was sitting at her dinner table;
the next, she was sitting on the asphalt of a completely deserted metropolis.
A digital voice had echoed from the
towering screens scattered across the
empty skyscrapers: “Welcome to the Echo Trial. Five children. Five missing bloodlines.
Solve the city, or remain forgotten.”
Rulan looked around the eerie, desolate plaza. Standing nearby were four other children, their faces pale and eyes wide with terror. Yuchen Han was the first to move, walking over to Rulan and offering a steady hand despite his own trembling fingers. A few feet away, Meiling Song instinctively stepped in front of her
childhood best friend, xi Yang, shieldingly.
while Xinyi Zhao stood quietly under a dead streetlight, clutching a map that had materialized in her hands.
They quickly realized the terrifying reality of
their situation. There were no adults, no
grocery store clerks, no police officers, and no passing cars. The city was pristine, fully functional, and completely devoid of
human life. The only way to survive-and to find the parents who had been ripped away from them-was to look for the clues left behind by the mysterious "Game."
