The red light in the sky grew larger while Ethan stood with Mary beside him and the people of Blackridge watched in silence, and it soon became clear that the object was no longer a distant glow but a fleet. Hundreds of enormous ships moved through the clouds, each of them wrapped in a dark red glow, with smaller ships circling around them like birds guarding something much larger. The New System remained silent, offering no warning, no threat level, and no mission, only a single message that read NEW THREAT APPROACHING.Ethan turned to Victor and asked whether he could identify them, and Victor shook his head and said that he had never seen anything like them. Claire closed her eyes and connected to the Player Network, and after a few seconds she opened them again and said that the newcomers were not using the Network at all. When Ethan asked what that meant, she explained that they were completely outside it.A deep sound rolled across the sky as the largest ship stopped above Black

The sky above Blackridge changed without warning, and Ethan stood on the roof of the old command building and watched the clouds disappear one by one. The darkness above the city was not growing brighter but emptier, with no stars, no moon, and no clouds, only a vast black space stretched across the heavens. Around him hundreds of Players stood in silence, with Claire beside Victor near the edge of the roof, Mary a few steps behind Ethan holding a small communication device, and Noah and Elias down below with the other survivors. Nobody knew what was coming, and the System had already warned them that no assistance would be available.For the first time since the apocalypse began, Ethan could not depend on a message appearing to tell him what to do, and he looked at his empty hands, feeling that he should have been afraid but finding instead that he was strangely calm. Victor said that they had visitors, and Ethan looked toward the horizon, where several points of light appeared in th

The entire sky turned black while Ethan stood on the roof and stared at the enormous eye opening above Blackridge, its surface stretching across the clouds, covering the stars, and swallowing every trace of light. For several seconds nobody spoke, and then the city lights began to flicker, with one building going dark and then another, until within moments Blackridge had vanished beneath a darkness so complete that Ethan could barely see the people standing beside him.Mary gripped his arm and asked what was happening, and he told her that he did not know. He wanted to give her a better answer, but the truth was that he had never encountered anything like this. The System remained silent, with no warning, no mission, and no explanation, and for the first time Ethan understood how frightening it was to face something without knowing whether he could fight it.Victor raised his weapon toward the sky and said that whatever the thing was, they could not simply stand there and wait. Claire