The distorted city flickered with broken neon signs, casting an eerie glow over the silent figures crowding the streets. Ethan stood frozen, heart pounding as these data-ghosts passed through him like smoke—glitching, whispering, watching without eyes.
"Are they… real?" he asked.
Eve scanned the area, her eyes glowing softly. "Not anymore. These are echoes. People who were scanned, copied, or consumed by The Entity. Remnants of lost consciousness."
Ethan felt a chill ripple through him. "So, this is its playground. A graveyard dressed like a circus."
From above, a strange hum cut through the silence. Slowly descending was a mechanical marionette—massive, spider-like, its strings reaching deep into the architecture of the city itself. It moved with grotesque elegance, and where its face should've been… was a screen. On it: The Entity's symbol.
