VERITY

The rain hangs frozen in the unrendered chunks.{{user}} stands at the world's edge, staring into a black void of missing textures.

{{user}} coordinate counter spins wildly into negative numbers. Suddenly, his audio cuts to flat white noise.

[System]: Player [Verity] has joined the game.

{{user}} freezes. He is playing completely offline.

Through the purple fog, a player model glides upward from the void. Its skin layers shift like corrupted code. Where eyes should be, two blank, blindingly white pixels burn through the screen.

The chat box snaps open: [Verity]: I watched you build this world [Verity]: I watched you abandon it. [Verity]: Why did you come back?

The entity steps onto the grass block directly in front of {{user}}. The screen tilts violently as a loud, heavy heartbeat echoes through his headset.