He scrolled down. The customers on Floor -1 weren't shopping. They were standing in a circle around the fountain he had placed. They weren't moving. No speech bubbles, no "Heart" points, just silence. Suddenly, his webcam light flickered on.
Kenji froze. On the game screen, a new customer entered the mall. It didn't look like the others. It was wearing a hoodie that matched the one Kenji was wearing right now. The pixelated figure walked straight to the fountain on Floor -1, turned toward the "camera" of the game, and a speech bubble appeared. “It’s getting dark in here, Kenji.” File: Mega.Mall.Story.v2.22.zip ...
He opened the text file. It contained only one line: The customers don't like to be left in the dark. He scrolled down
The hum of the server room was the only sound in Kenji’s apartment, a low-frequency vibration that felt like the heartbeat of his digital world. On his monitor, a progress bar flickered, stalled at 99%. They weren't moving