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The stadiuo to our individual ter The announcer sounds far away, and the cheers froround noise I keep h, Hideo is there, surrounded by bodyguards

Then the world goes dark, and I find myself transported into another realm

"Welcome to the Lost City Level!"

The echo of the announcer’s voice fades away as the virtual world ht filters down fro above a spectacular, ruined city surrounded on all sides by walls of colorful coral Stone pillars tower up toward the surface Piles of rock are everywhere, looking like once-grand theaters and bathhouses Turquoise light shines fro lines that seem to point out pathways to take The ruins stretch as far as I can see, dappled sunlight dancing against their surfaces, and drifting over the keeping us fro completely immersed is the sound of the crowd’s cheers all around us

I look to either side My teaht white with flippers on our feet and fins on our arms I look down at my hands They are equipped with buttons intheet around

Far on the other side of the ruins appear our rivals The Cloud Knights They are dressed in outfits of bright yellow, standing out against the blue tint of this place All of our eyes are turned toward the down at the ruins already, as if searching for soht!"

The gah our comms, and we split ihts dive down for the ruins, no doubt ready to lose themselves inside the maze of crumbled structures We dive, too I clench my fists down on the buttons on h the water in a blur ofa trail behindhow et to the point where we start splitting up, my teammates reappear as tiny dots on a s attention to is Ren He swims away from the others and toward a series of collapsed colu what had happened after our first round, I change course froo and instead trail after Ren

"Ehs "Can you follow o center, toward that collapsed a in my direction "Don’t worry"

Asher ue, but then he stops, as if he’d reame "Your only solo move," he says "Hear rows di against the stone forood pace in front of ?

"And it looks like the Cloud Knights have secured the first rare power-up of the game!" the announcer’s voice coold Invisibility!"

I should be concentrating on the gaen level starts to deplete Warning: 25 left flashes in my view Up ahead, I see a spot between the rocks where bubbles of air are coht never catch up to Ren So I skip it, then propelaround er floating in an ocean, but standing in a cavern encircling ht illuminates the space The sounds of the audience’s cheers abruptly go silent I blink What had happened? In real life, I reach up to adjust litch? It’s as if I’d suddenly been taken out of the game I can’t even seearound My voice echoes

If ht now and alert the authorities The game would be paused as they fix it But instead I continue looking around,faster now No This is not an accident The red hue of this space looks too siure is standing in front of me He’s clad in the fitted black ar now, and his face is completely hidden behind a dark, opaque helmet His head is turned directly toward me For a moment, we just stare at each other in silence

Zero’s proxy Or his follower

Or, maybe, himself

I finda step forward

"And you’re the one who’s been trailing me Hideo’s little lackey" His voice sounds deep and distorted in this cavern

This is really hi Instantly, I think of the ame Had he set that to test whether or not I could see hiame in order to speak directly to me

"My teammates will see that I’m trapped," I say to him My words come out forceful and frustrated as memories of Hideo’s near-assassination flash back atevery world"

Zero walks closer tounderneath the black armor, until we are separated by a mere foot He stares down at me "Here’s what your teammates currently see"

Apops up in the center of noring Asher’s repeated co si trapped in an obvious airless pocket

"Right now, as far as they’re concerned, you’ve ed to seal yourself in an underwater cave in the ruins And you’re running out of air fast"

"Why are you here?" I say "What do you want?"