LuTech Esports Arena – Dawn.
The training complex was silent at sunrise, an eerie kind of silence, the kind just before something falls apart.
Shen Wanqing stood in front of the smartwall screen in the briefing chamber, replaying footage from her last match. Not from her POV, from Dagger's.
She wasn't supposed to have it.
But a friend on the video analytics team had slipped her the footage anonymously, with a single line:
"You're being tested. Don't fail."
She watched again. Slowed it down.
Frame 1946: Dagger marking her location.
Frame 1955: Hot mic open.
Frame 1957: Enemy fire before her own team even saw the flank.
It wasn't just sabotage. It was orchestrated.
And it wasn't the first time.
Reign's Past – Seoul, Two Years Ago
Lu Zeyan stood under the floodlights of a championship stage, arms slack, jaw tight.
KNG-Strike, his team back then, had just been eliminated in one of the most shocking throws in league history. Their star fragger, Zeyan, had pulled back from a confirmed kill during finals.
What the cameras never caught was this: he wasn't supposed to win.
His coach had made a quiet deal with a betting syndicate. The team would throw the final rotation. Lu Zeyan refused.
The result? His teammate "accidentally" blocked his line of sight during the final zone push.
He was painted as the weak link. The one who cracked.
He left esports for nearly a year.
That was also when he created "Reign," not just a username, but an entirely new identity.
Present – LuTech Compound
Wanqing and Reign met in the outdoor obstacle field under foggy morning light. No cameras. No coaches.
She handed him a flash drive.
"Dagger's betrayal was recorded," she said simply.
He didn't look surprised. Just… tired.
"He's not working alone," Reign murmured. "Someone's feeding him information. And whoever it is… knows both of us."
She raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure?"
He looked at her, eyes cold. "Because they're using the same tactics that broke my team two years ago."
Hidden Message – The Digital Map
Reign connected the flash drive to his secure rig later that night. Aside from the match footage, there was one encrypted folder.
Inside it: a satellite map overlay of Miramar, marked with strange zones.
Circles. Red pings. Lines intersecting across match history, sponsor shifts, and player pairings.
In the top right corner, a name was written in code.
Z.III.Dagger
C.IX.Strike
L.I.X.Wing
Zeyan stared at it, blood slowly chilling.
Whoever was behind this had kept records of every betrayal, every manipulated trial, every fall from grace. Including his own.
He scrolled to the bottom.
One new line had been added recently.
Q.VII.Snipe
Shen Wanqing.
Wanqing's Dorm – Late Night
There was a knock at the door.
She opened it. Reign entered, silent but visibly rattled.
"You're on the map," he said.
"What map?"
He handed her a printed version.
She scanned it slowly. Her name. Her past matches. Her former teammates. Patterns and movements she hadn't even noticed were being tracked.
"What is this?"
"It's not just a game anymore," he said. "It's a blueprint. For control."
"By who?"
Reign looked away.
"Someone I used to trust."
Final Scene – Control Room (Unknown Location)
A figure stood in front of a dark wall of monitors. Footage of Wanqing and Reign played silently.
Another voice crackled over the comms. "They're getting too close."
The figure lit a cigarette, face still hidden by shadows.
"Let them," the voice said. "The deeper they dig… the harder they'll fall."
The screen flicked once more.
TARGET PRIORITY 1: REIGNTARGET PRIORITY 2: SHEN WANQING