For three painful seconds, the progress bar on the curved CRT monitor remained pegged at ninety-nine percent.
Shen Shitou held his breath so hard his bronze temples pulsed.
Princess Jiang Ling’er clenched her fists against her boiler apron, her knuckles white.
Niu Mang, Xiao Yu, and Murong Seven stared at the green glowing screen as if their nascent souls were hanging by an invisible thread.
Then, with a gentle, electronic click from the end-post’s internal speaker:
DING.
The progress bar snapped smoothly to one hundred percent.
In the center of the monitor, the blocky progress window dissolved, replaced by a radiant, emerald-green system certificate bordered by spotless golden ASCII characters.
