The room went silent. The only sound was the hum of the cooling fans and the slow, heavy turn of his bedroom door handle.

The screen flickered, then resolved into a sprawling, hyper-detailed map. It wasn't a game level. It was a 1:1 recreation of his own neighborhood—the streetlamps, the cracked pavement of the cul-de-sac, even the specific shade of blue of his neighbor’s shutters.

On his monitor, the sprite in the map editor turned its head toward the "camera." Simultaneously, Elias heard a soft click from his physical doorway.