Ji Corporation – AI Ops Command Room
The lights were dimmed, the air thick with tension. Madam Ji stood at the head of the command center, hands resting calmly on the railing.
Below her, engineers scrambled to decode the failure of CHIMERA-A01.
"It learned faster than any human," one stammered. "But it couldn't outplay... unpredictability."
She nodded once.
"Then we stop trying to predict them. We learn to hunt them."
A new program began booting in the background.
Initializing: Hunter Algorithm v1.0Subject replication model: Shen Wanqing / Lu ZeyanOverlay module: Behavioral camouflageMode: Infiltration & Termination
Madam Ji smiled.
"Release it. Let the game begin."
Scene – Seoul Invitational, One Week Later
The Seoul Invitational was meant to be a clean regional competition... nothing fancy, just a mid-tier tourney. Wanqing and Reign were invited as special commentators, not players.
But the moment they arrived, something felt off.
"That team," Wanqing whispered, narrowing her eyes at the all-black squad entering the arena. "They walk like bots. But their micro... It's ours."
Reign leaned closer to the screen showing warm-ups.
"Their sniper crosshair alignment, that's your drift flick.""And that reload-cancel… that's my maneuver from back in Season 2."
Mayhem, watching from the tech booth, confirmed their fear.
"They're human players... running AI overlays in live matches."
"Clones," Reign said grimly. "With real bodies."
Flashback – Ji Corp Underground Lab
Months before, Ji Corp had begun Project Mimesis, uploading player behaviors into willing participants enhanced by neural chips.
These weren't bots.
They were real people.
Injected with someone else's instincts.
Game Day – On Camera
Reign and Wanqing weren't supposed to play.
But when one of the real teams dropped out at the last second due to a "mysterious illness," they were pushed onto the field.
"This isn't random," Reign murmured."They're forcing us to face our own shadows."
Team Hunter stood across from them. Four masked players. Identical movements. Zero emotion.
The match began.
Match Highlights
Early Game: Team Hunter used Reign and Wanqing's exact rotations. They mirrored everything, anticipating their every move.
Mid Game: Wanqing switched to a loadout she hadn't touched in three years, a forgotten combo from when she first played on a cheap laptop. The Hunters hesitated.
Late Game: Reign stopped calling plays. He let his instincts take over, fighting not like himself, but like a desperate, wild amateur. The AI couldn't follow chaos.
And then...
Final kill: Wanqing no-scoped the Hunter sniper with a move she'd only ever used once, the first time she beat Reign in a 1v1.
Victory – But Not Without Warning
They won.
The crowd roared.
But Team Hunter didn't flinch. After being eliminated, they stood up, synchronized, turned toward Wanqing and Reign...
...and spoke in unison:
"You cannot delete the future."
Security escorted them out. But the damage was done.
They weren't just being copied.
They were being replaced.
Final Scene – Rooftop After the Match
Wanqing stood near the edge, wind blowing through her hair, staring out at the glowing city.
Reign joined her, holding two bottles of tea.
"I don't want to play against myself anymore," she said quietly."Then don't," he replied. "Play with me."
She turned, surprised.
"You mean... ?""Duo. In-game. Out here. All of it."
A pause.
She smiled.
"Alright. But I call shotgun."