He was the perfect player. He was undetected. And he no longer existed.

The webcam light flickered once and died. On the screen, the Neon Strike leaderboard refreshed. In the #1 spot, where Elias’s username should have been, there was only a blank, gray space.

But the next morning, Elias woke up to a cold room. His PC was humming, the fans spinning at maximum velocity despite the power being "off."

A faint, violet pulse emanated from the center of his screen. There were no bright boxes around enemies or jagged "aim-bot" snapping. Instead, he felt a strange, intuitive tug in his mouse hand. It was as if the game was whispering where the enemies would be before they even rounded the corner.