The red counter flickered.
The character on screen turned to face the camera. “I’m the last player. The original owner of that disc. I bought it new in 2012. And when the world outside got too real—the blackouts, the riots, the quiet collapse—I stayed inside. I kept playing. I found a bug that let me map my own consciousness into the save state.”
Then he heard it. A voice. Not from the game’s speakers, but from his actual headphones. A whisper, raw and dry, like sandpaper on bone.