When a dying online game began to "self-evolve", five thousand nostalgic players suddenly discovered that what they were logging in was no longer a game, but a survival test covering the real and digital worlds. Monsters learned to outflank and ambush, NPCs began to talk about the world outside the server, and a mysterious text message dragged everyone into a 72-hour countdown:
"Protocol level assigned, ready to log in to the real thing."
