Kael hadn't slept in forty-eight hours. Not because of monsters—he could handle a few zombies. No, it was the hunger . The gnawing, insatiable need to see what lay beneath.

The chat log exploded.

His screen flickered. The xray texture pack didn't just show ores anymore. It showed everything . The redstone torches powering the server's logic. The string of code that was the village blacksmith's trade table. And behind him, in his own hut, a second figure. A player model with no name tag, no skin, just the default Steve. It was staring at him through the wall.