Mark's cursor hovered over it.

Waving.

Then he saw the other player.

He double-clicked.

The chat box flooded with new text—hundreds of lines, all from , all repeating the same phrase:

Mark approached. The shadow didn't move. He typed:

dev, this isn't fun anymore [User_001]: you said we could build anything [Dev]: you can. what's wrong? [User_001]: i built a door. it led here. now i can't leave. [Dev]: that's not possible. the server resets every 24 hours. [User_001]: it's been 240 hours for me. the sun doesn't move. the trees don't rustle. but something else does. [Dev]: what? [User_001]: the other players. the ones you deleted. they're still here. in the fragments. they talk through the terrain. [Dev]: there are no deleted players. it's just you. [User_001]: then who's typing this?