Chapter One: The Second the World Went Silent

Sound died at 12:17 a.m. The training-room lights flickered once. Then a flash grenade detonated at the feet of all five Emberstar players. White swallowed their screens, but no blast followed. Muzzles flared. Shell casings rolled across steel. An enemy heavy smashed through a wall. Every noise that should have torn through their eardrums had been pressed into the depths by an invisible hand. “Stop!” Zhou Yan ripped off his headset. He could hear his own voice and chairs sliding behind him. But the game, the system alerts, even the sound-card test tone—gone. The world championship final began in seventeen hours. Emberstar was the favorite to win Riftfront’s greatest title. Three minutes ago, they had been rehearsing their last secret strategy.