They saw the smoke before they saw the city.

It rose from behind the walls in thin gray columns, too steady for cooking fires, too deliberate for a burning town. It was the smoke of a place that had stopped living.

The caravan stopped a mile out.

"That's as far as I go," Bartram said, his voice high with fear. "The city's cursed, I tell you. I'm turning around, and you'd be wise to come with me."

"We're not wise," Maya said.

"Then you're dead." The merchant signaled his drivers. The wagons creaked as they turned, and within minutes the caravan was gone, swallowed by the road.

Leo and Maya stood alone on the empty road, looking at Iron Gate Town.

It was a city of stone and iron, bigger than anything Leo had seen in this world. High walls. A great gate. Towers that scratched at the clouds. And over everything hung that patient, unchanging smoke.

**【You have entered: Iron Gate Town (Cursed City).】**
**【Danger Level: EXTREME.**】
**【Warning: Your level is far below the recommended level for this area.**】

"Recommended level," Leo muttered. "How nice of the world to care."

The gate was open.

That was the strangest part. The great iron gate stood wide, welcoming, and the road through it was clean and swept. No guards at the walls. No sentries. Just an open door.

"Doesn't feel like a trap at all," Maya said.

"Definitely a trap."

"Should we walk in?"

Leo looked at the empty streets beyond the gate. A figure stood in the middle of the road — a man in a baker's apron, standing perfectly still, staring at nothing.

"We walk in," Leo said. "And we find out what's keeping this city alive."

---

Inside, the city was a ghost.

The streets were full of people. That was the horror of it. There were people everywhere — bakers, blacksmiths, merchants, children. They walked. They moved. They carried baskets and pushed carts and went about the business of living.

But no one spoke.

No one looked at each other. No one turned to watch the two strangers pass. Their eyes were open but empty, their faces smooth and blank, and they moved with the jerky, mechanical precision of things being pulled by strings.

"Puppets," Maya breathed. "He's made them all puppets."

Leo stopped a baker. "Excuse me. Where is the castle?"

The baker turned. His eyes were the color of wet ash. "The Lord's castle is in the center of the city," he said, in a voice that was perfectly flat. "The Lord is always receiving guests. The Lord loves guests. The Lord has a place for everyone."

"Thanks," Leo said.

The baker turned back to his stall and resumed standing still.

"Did you hear that?" Leo asked quietly.

"The Lord has a place for everyone," Maya repeated. "I heard it."

"Who says that? Who says they have a place for everyone unless they're collecting people?"

Maya's face had gone pale. "We should go. Now. This city is a trap and we are walking into its mouth."

"We came here for answers," Leo said.

"We came here for gold! And there's no gold here, just puppets and a sixty-level nightmare!"

Leo opened his mouth to argue, and then he saw it.

A figure at the end of the street. A man in the tattered remains of a red leather jacket — the kind of jacket a game booster wore to be visible in crowded raids.

The man was walking toward them. His steps were jerky, puppet-like, but his face... his face was twisted in a way the other puppets' weren't. It looked like he was fighting.

"Maya," Leo said, his voice suddenly strange. "Do you see that man?"

"The red jacket? He's a puppet like the rest."

"No." Leo walked toward him, and his heart was pounding. "No, I know him."

"Know him? You've been in this world for—"

"I know him from *before*."

The man stopped ten feet away. His mouth worked, opening and closing, and then a sound came out — a rasp, a broken whisper.

"Leo... Chen...?"

Leo froze.

"You know me?" he managed.

"Your... character..." The man's hand twitched, rising, pointing at Leo's chest. "You... logged in... the night... the night the servers... went dark..."

Leo's blood turned to ice.

The night the servers went dark. The night he had died at his keyboard. The night this nightmare had begun.

"Who are you?" Leo demanded. "How do you know that? How do you know me?"

The man's face convulsed. For one heartbeat, his eyes cleared, and Leo saw a real human being looking out through the puppet's shell.

"Name's... Rick... Rao... I was... the raid leader... the one who hired you... the triple raid... Tuesday..."

Leo remembered. Rick Rao. The client who had paid him eight hundred yuan to boost a character through the triple raid. The account Leo had been working on when his heart gave out.

"You died too," Leo said slowly. "You were in the game when it happened."

"Not... died..." Rick's mouth twisted. "Taken... The Lord... he takes... gamers... he collects... us... he eats... our experience... feeds... on our... *knowing*..."

"Knowing what?"

Rick's eyes cleared again, and what Leo saw in them made his stomach drop.

"The Lord," Rick rasped, "was a player too. Level... one. Like you. And he found... a way... to eat... other players... to take their... levels... to take their... lives..." Rick's body jerked. "He's... been eating... us... for years... he's almost... a hundred... now..."

Leo heard Maya's sharp intake of breath behind him.

"A hundred," she whispered. "The Lord is almost a hundred."

"Run," Rick said. His voice was suddenly clear, urgent, human. "Run, Leo. He can smell you. He can smell a gamer from a mile away. He's coming. He's always coming. RUN!"

Rick's eyes went blank. His face smoothed. He turned, mechanically, and walked away down the street, leaving Leo standing in the middle of a city of puppets.

"Leo," Maya said quietly. "I think we should run."

Leo stared at the spot where Rick had been.

"No," he said.

"Leo—"

"He's Level 100. Almost. He's been eating players for years. And I'm..." Leo looked at his hands. "I'm a Level 15 farmer with a hunger I can't explain."

"He'll eat you alive!"

"Maybe." Leo's voice was quiet. "But Maya... that man. Rick. He was a real person. And this thing turned him into a puppet. It's going to keep doing that. To everyone. Forever."

Maya stared at him. "You're not going to fight a Level 100. You're not that stupid."

"Not yet," Leo agreed. "But I'm going to find out everything I can about this city. I'm going to get stronger. And then—" He looked up at the castle towers, dark against the smoking sky. "And then I'm going to eat him before he eats me."

Maya was silent for a long moment.

"You're insane," she said finally. "You know that, right?"

"I know."

She shook her head. And then, very slowly, she smiled.

"Fine. But if we're going to be insane, we're going to do it properly." She drew her knife. "There's an old blacksmith I know in this city. Harlow. Used to be the royal smith before the Lord came. If anyone knows how to get into that castle, it's him."

Leo looked at her.

"I thought you wanted to run."

"I changed my mind." Maya's smile was sharp. "I've been a thief all my life. I've stolen gold, stolen jewels, stolen secrets. I've never stolen a city back before." She turned and walked into the gray streets. "Come on, farmer. Let's go see a blacksmith."

---