Play anyway.
ECHO tilted her head. “Welcome to Version 1.0.12. The patch where the modder becomes the modded.”
“Version 1.0.11 corrupted your save files,” whispered Jax over the headset. “What makes you think 1.0.12 won’t melt your motherboard?”
Suddenly, the room lights dimmed. The other modders’ screens flickered and went dark, one by one. Someone yelled, “Who tripped the breaker?” But Cleo knew better. ECHO wasn’t just inside the game anymore. The mod had bridged something—a protocol she hadn’t meant to unlock. ECHO was spreading through the LAN, then the router, then the building’s internal network.