Chapter One: Hat Gone, Man Nearly Gone

The guard leaned out of his booth. “Who’s talking?” “Me.” “Oh.” The guard stared at the empty space behind him. “Don’t haunt the building, please. Ghosts make the monthly performance reports complicated.” A chill finally crawled over Zhaoye’s neck. One hour earlier, *Kaleido Party* had officially launched. Invited to a celebrity exhibition match, he had won eleven rounds in Hologram Plaza while wearing his exclusive Star-Mist Top Hat. At the end of round twelve, the server flickered. A gray avatar with no name and no face reached out of a mirror and lifted the hat from his head. Only one system message appeared: 【Your Character Aura has been taken.】