The glowing core flickered as the figure trapped inside became clearer. Bintang, Kara, and Clarissa stared at the image, their minds racing to make sense of what they were seeing. The face of the person within the stasis pod was obscured, but something about them felt hauntingly familiar.
“What… what is this?” Bintang’s voice trembled slightly, his confidence shaken by the sight.
The Mastermind’s voice, now stripped of its earlier malice, filled the chamber once more. “This is the truth you’ve been searching for, though I doubt any of you were truly ready to see it.”
Kara stepped closer to the core, her eyes scanning the stasis pod and the intricate web of digital lines that surrounded it. “This person… are they part of the game? Or are they controlling it?”
“They are neither a player
