The Primordial Abyss forums lit up like wildfire. Suspicious dungeon activity. Audit notice. Emberstone Burrow.
Adrian Voss leaned back in his chair, smirking. Too late.
City lights flickered like static on a muted screen.
Adrian lounged in his apartment—neither lavish nor bare, just comfortably lived-in. A clean upgrade, courtesy of Titan Corp.
The building was quiet. Upper floor. Mostly corporate residents—VR testers, AI compliance agents, maybe a few streamers with NDAs they didn't understand. His neighbors worked in the same machine he dissected.
Books sat neatly on proper shelves. A dusty VR headset lay untouched.
Old ramen cups lingered beside scattered notes—everything functional, nothing sentimental.
His upgraded desktop hummed gently, three monitors glowing with forums, news feeds, and live gameplay threads.
He leaned back, lazily munching potato chips. The only sounds: crunching starch and the occasional groan.
Sometimes, a low chuckle.
