When the screen flickered back on, he was no longer in the Utah void. He was standing in the digital bakery. The man was gone. Outside, the others were frozen, their faces turned toward him, their eyes hollow.
A new message appeared, burned into the air before him. Geo-fs.con
ARIS: Leo, close the anomaly file. It's a stress-test asset from the dev team. When the screen flickered back on, he was