File: Paradise_beach_v0.3.rar ... -

A notification popped up on Elias’s actual desktop, overlaying the game:

He found a small shack on the shore. Inside, a single NPC stood staring at a wall. When Elias clicked on it, a text box appeared, but it wasn't game dialogue. File: Paradise_Beach_V0.3.rar ...

He saw the back of his own head on the screen, rendered in the same low-poly style as the mannequin. The mannequin stopped moving. Elias took his hands off the keyboard, but the figure on the screen turned around slowly. The Extraction A notification popped up on Elias’s actual desktop,

The mannequin didn't have a face, but it had a mouth—a jagged line of dead pixels. It leaned toward the "camera" of the game world. a text box appeared