The rogue lifted his gun and pointed it at Xavier's head.

Then he tilted the barrel upward, away from Xavier, placed it against his own forehead—

And his voice finally came out.

"See you in Mode 3."

He pulled the trigger.

His body pixelated, collapsing into static before fading into the air.

The timer hit zero as Xavier stepped into the evac field.

Everyone else on the battlefield was dead.

But the phase counted him alive.

Phase 3 ended with Xavier as the ONLY surviving player.

Heroic faction won by technicality, because the VIP reached the evac point alive, even though literally every other player on both factions got wiped.

[PHASE 3 — OFFICIAL RESULTS]

TOTAL ACTIVE PLAYERS AT START OF PHASE 3: 363,726

• Heroic: 163,727

• Evil: 199,999

TOTAL SURVIVORS:

1 (Xavier)

Every other player died due to combat, explosions, environment collapse, GM tram incidents, or "unexpected data events."

OUTCOME:

HEROIC FACTION — VICTORY.

MVP RANKINGS (FINAL PHASE) "ObsidianShade" (Evil)

Stats: 4,913 player kills, 17 MVP eliminations, single-handedly destroyed two evacuation corridors, fought AstraNova and HeartCore at once and won, final appearance at evac point.)

He disappeared after the last shot with the message:

"See you in Mode 3." AstraNova (Heroic)

Carried VIP through collapsing tunnels, held back multiple Evil squads, delayed ObsidianShade long enough for Xavier to escape. HeartCore (Heroic)

Shield-tanked 3.1 million damage, broke two ambush formations. Zer0Blade (Evil)

Sniped 842 players and nearly secured a kill-shot on Xavier during the catwalk push. Juggernaut Squad Theta (Heroic)

Punched open a collapsed tunnel to create a shortcut for the VIP route.FUNNIEST / DUMBEST DEATHS (SHORT LIST) "SkyQuacker" tried to jetpack across the broken tunnel and face-planted directly into the GM-rail tram.

• "GlitchNinja" got stuck inside a wall during the collapse… and was atomized when the map reloaded the texture.

• "BigPickle" fell through a hole AstraNova created while fighting ObsidianShade and screamed the whole fall.

• An Evil squad of 9 tried to ambush Xavier, only to be crushed by a rogue bot that spawned above them.BEST CHAOS MOMENTS The original evac gate exploding for no explained reason.

• The ENTIRE station collapsing faster once both factions sprinted toward the new evac point.

• ObsidianShade wiping two max-level squads in less than 15 seconds.

• The GM-rail tram looping the map without stopping.

• The maintenance centipede-bot respawning itself and attacking both factions.DEV COMMENTARY (DENIAL LIST) "The evac explosion was not our doing. For real."

• "The GM tram was functioning within acceptable parameters."

• "The centipede-bot respawn was a visual bug."

• "We did not buff the bots."

• "We also have no idea who ObsidianShade is."

• "Please stop accusing us of rigging the event."

The exit animation washed over him in a slow dissolve, the last flashes of the collapsing metro fading into streaks of light that slid past his vision. His body felt weightless for a moment, then heavy, then rooted again as the VR rig released its locks one by one. The helmet lifted with a soft hiss, warm air hitting his face. His room lights adjusted automatically, dimmed to a soft glow the moment the system recognized he'd returned from a full dive.

He sat there for a second, breathing out, letting the leftover adrenaline settle. His muscles were warm, still buzzing slightly from the full-dive immersion, and his hair clung to his forehead from how long he'd been inside. The tower clock outside blinked 03:03 AM.

He rubbed his neck and got up, moving toward the small shelf near the window to grab a bottle of water. The city pulsed outside — the neon towers glowing bright enough to paint thin reflections across his floor. He took a drink, wiped his mouth, and leaned his shoulder against the wall.

The moment he picked up his phone, the notifications detonated.

Millions.

Actual millions.

Tags, mentions, messages, screen recordings of him sprinting through exploding tunnels, fan edits of the rogue player standing at the evac gate, people screaming in excitement that he'd solo-survived the entire last phase, others laughing that he "did nothing and still won."

Five trending hashtags had his name.

Two trending tags had "Who the hell is ObsidianShade???"

Another trending one accused the devs of rigging the whole event.

Xavier scrolled through a few clips.

One fan had put dramatic music over the last ten seconds before extraction.

Someone else slowed down the rogue player's final moment, repeating the phrase "See you in Mode 3" on loop.

Another posted a meme that read:

"Xavier: casually survives planet-wide wars and dev bugs."

"Everyone else: dies touching a rail."

He snorted a laugh and shook his head.

The live streams started next — three separate official ones popping up on his phone with tens of millions of viewers each, all from the dev team trying to handle the chaos.

He tapped into the first one.

A group of five developers sat in front of a giant holographic display showing the Phase 3 kill map. They looked tired, mildly traumatized, and also like they were having the time of their lives even while denying everything.

One of them cleared his throat and said, "First of all, the evac explosion in Phase 3 was a… rendering issue. Probably."

The chat exploded in insults and memes.

Another dev added, "The GM-rail tram operating without scheduled breaks was, uh… a physics oversight."

"It killed forty thousand players," someone shouted from the chat.

"Yes, well," the dev continued, "that's what physics oversights tend to do."

They kept answering questions.

Players asked why the centipede-bot respawned.

The dev said, "It didn't. You imagined that."

Players asked if ObsidianShade was a dev secret.

The devs all shook their heads too quickly to be believable.

Someone asked if they buffed the rogue.

The dev in the center said, "We don't know who he is. If he works here, we'll find out tomorrow."

Another asked, "When will mode 3 unlock?"

The devs whispered among themselves and one of them responded, "Today after reset."

Then another asked, "What's the event about?"

"Xavier." The devs responded immediately as though that wasn't obvious.

Xavier actually laughed this time. The devs had no intention of admitting anything. They enjoyed the chaos even more than the players.