Harmless. That was the lie.
Because behind him, in perfect unison, every Chromebook in the study hall—all thirty of them—flipped their screens around and smiled.
The screen went black.
00:02.
Leo didn’t move. He didn’t breathe.
The school firewall was a fortress. Or so the IT guy, Mr. Hendricks, liked to boast. It blocked everything: Roblox, Spotify, even the weather radar (“a distraction,” he’d grumble). But for a group of bored seniors in third-period study hall, the fortress had one tiny, hairline crack.
By day two, the unblocked nature of the game began to show its teeth. The “Save” button was grayed out—permanently. The settings menu only contained one slider labeled “Reality Fidelity,” defaulted to 95%. Leo, curious, slid it to 100%.
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