The map was perfect. The lighting of the Source engine felt crisper than he remembered, the shadows deeper. He spawned as a Terrorist, holding a classic CV-47. But there were no teammates. No bots. Just the sound of his own footsteps echoing through 'B' tunnels.

The game world began to decompile. The walls of Dust2 dissolved into lines of green code; the skybox cracked open to reveal a scrolling binary sea.

Elias turned a corner into the 'B' site and stopped. A character model stood there—the classic SAS soldier—but its textures were shimmering, like oil on water. It didn’t move. It didn’t shoot. "Who are you?" Elias typed.