"Take the shot!" she yelled.

He woke up in his gaming chair, gasping. The monitor showed the Fortnite lobby screen. But the "Ready" button was gone. In its place, a single line of text:

"Because dying here hurts. A lot. And when you wake back up on this dock, you remember every second of it." She pointed at the clock. "That's the Loop Timer. When it hits zero, everything—your kills, your loot, your memory of the last match—gets wiped. Unless you win."

"The Zero Point hums," the voice continued. "A new piece enters the board."