Chapter Text
The blue light of the monitor hummed, a low-frequency buzz that seemed to vibrate inside my skull. On the screen wasn't a draft phase or a tactical map of the Rift, but an Excel spreadsheet filled with logistics data for a mid-sized trading firm.
"Chen Zhengzheng?"
I jumped, nearly sending my glasses flying. It was a coworker—someone whose name I’d seen on a desk nameplate but hadn't actually spoken to. "Yes?"
"The report for the Q3 logistics? You were supposed to email it ten minutes ago." She sighed, eyeing the stack of neon-yellow sticky notes plastered to the edge of my monitor. "Did you forget again?"
"I... I’m on it. Sorry," I muttered, my voice sounding foreign and small.
A few days. It had been a few days since I woke up in this cramped apartment, in this body that felt like mine but lived a life I didn't recognize. In my old life, I was 'Cat.' I lived in a high-tech training facility in Chengdu. My hands were conditioned for pixel-perfect reflexes. Here, my fingers felt stiff, better suited for typing invoices than pulling off a clutch Sun Bin ultimate.
I reached for my phone, my thumb hovering habitually over the Honor of Kings icon. It was the only thing that remained the same—the same logo, the same heroes. But when I’d logged in yesterday, the account was level one. No skins, no rank, no history.
I looked at a photo on my desk. It wasn't me with a trophy; it was a lonely selfie in front of a park fountain.
The sting of YiNuo’s voice from two days ago still echoed in my head. I’d waited outside the AG facility, desperate for a familiar face. When he walked out, I’d called his name—not as a fan, but as a brother. He’d looked at me with that polite, distant smile he reserved for strangers and told me, “Good luck with your games, man, but I’ve never seen you in the base before.”
I rubbed my eyes, the cold reality settling in. In this world, the support player who had his teammates' backs was gone. I was just a ghost in a suit, staring at a game that didn't know I existed.
I gripped the mouse. If the world doesn't remember Cat, I thought, a spark of the old competitive fire flickering in my chest, I’ll just have to make them learn the name all over again.