The world didn’t just glitch; it began to **scream**.
As Aris Vance’s pulse hit zero, the indigo dawn outside the basement window was replaced by a flickering, jagged crimson. The "Global Empathy Link" I had just created—the bridge that was supposed to save humanity—was turning into a noose. Five billion minds, suddenly connected, were now experiencing the sensory overload of a "System Crash."
I felt it in my own head—a million voices crying out in a synchronized wave of terror as their reality began to pixelate. The wooden beams of the house turned into translucent wireframes. The smell of the morning air turned into the metallic tang of static.
"Elara!" Silas’s voice was a roar through the digital storm.
He was kneeling over me, his hands on my shoulders. He was flickering harder tha
