The lights in his dorm room flickered and died, leaving only the violet glow of the monitor illuminating his face. Outside his door, he heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of footsteps that sounded exactly like the audio files he had just unzipped.
The heavy iron gates of St. Jude’s University had always promised "Knowledge and Virtue," but for Elias, a junior in the computer science department, they mostly delivered outdated textbooks and flickering fluorescent lights.
As soon as he clicked "Run," his monitor didn't just display a game; it projected a high-definition map of the campus. It was perfect. Too perfect. He saw the cracked tile in the hallway of the library and the exact way the ivy crawled up the dorm walls.
