"The synthetic traffic just died."
Victoria Price dropped her tablet onto the master console. The massive wave of redirected data vanished from their screens. The Elysium Summit had pulled the plug on their own mercenary bot farm.
"The Head Arbiter realized we weaponized his capital," Leo Vance noted. The young tech genius wiped sweat from his brow. "He severed the connection to stop the bleeding."
The artificial numbers stopped spinning. The true organic race officially began.
Elena Vance refreshed the Global Billboard registry.
Project Apollo held the top spot. The clone possessed a massive lead built from hours of uncontested corporate streaming.
Parker Pavilion sat in the second position.
"We stalled," Elena whispered. Her voice carried the heavy weight of exhaustion.
The initi
