Dr. Chen Yingxi

PRC territory, Earth 2060. Seven districts from the Surface Grid to the Sub-4 research corridor, four factions, the laws a city enforces and the ones it weaponizes, the water crisis clock, and Node 7 deciding penalties before any human reads

Kite's stolen 'quantum core' matches Project Amaterasu point for point: PRC-classified, Sub-4/Node-7 origin, a caretaker who can't get out (Chen Yingxi), and an oligarch (Park Jinhyo) quietly funding it off the books. Kurosawa Renji already stole Amaterasu's behavioral log once and started a small war doing it. Nothing in 'The Last Black Box' names Amaterasu outright — this is an inferred link, not a confirmed one — but if it's true, Kite is holding the same object three canonical NPCs have already died or defected over.