Chapter 116 - The Sixty Percent Threshold

The dawn that preceded the Stress Test didn't arrive with the usual quiet grace of a mountain morning. It arrived with a low, bone-deep thrum that seemed to vibrate the very frost off the windowpanes. By six in the morning, the quad was already teeming with activity. The Artisan teams were no longer just students; they were a synchronized crew of laborers, moving with the heavy, purposeful tread of people who knew exactly how much pressure was sitting beneath their feet. I stood on the tower balcony, my eyes tracing the lines of amber light that now defined the valley. Every merchant camp, every mining outpost, and every farmhouse within five miles was now a node in our network. We had turned the valley into a giant circuit, and at noon, we were going to find out if the insulation would hold.