The first level – the Food Court – loaded. The lighting was wrong. The neon signs that usually buzzed "Pizza Foxx" and "Boba Tails" were dead. And the skybox, which should show a starry night, showed nothing. Just a flat, texture-less gray.

I started walking again. Slow. Deliberate. The meter held steady. I made it to the elevator that leads to the second floor (The "Cunning Corridor"). I pressed the call button. As the doors slid open, I glanced at the reflection.

Build 114 had been fine. Creepy, sure. The Manager would sometimes spawn too close, his digitized voice crackling "Discount for you… permanent discount…" But it was a fun kind of tense.

Playtesters, We’ve isolated the memory leak in the Foxxx.exe. Patch 115 reverts the NPC pathfinding to the stable Build 102 kernel. Please verify and report. - Dev Team

I spun the camera. Nothing. Just a long corridor of shuttered kiosks.