gabby thought it was just a weird little game. ela thought it was a chance to write poetry and maybe confess his feelings. maxas just spawned in one day with a baguette and a traffic cone and never left. but when cassy and mei fuse their minds into the code and trap everyone inside the simulation, things get... complicated. months pass. the world glitches. ducks scream. clones multiply. gabby tries to marry a vending machine. ela dies repeatedly from heartbreak. maxas activates sigma mode. and when the group finally fights back, cassy and mei start controlling them like puppets-turning friends into enemies and love into code. but maxas has a plan. and it starts with dying. a lot. this is a story about friendship, betrayal, respawning, memory, and one very dramatic fall into the real world. it's funny. it's sad. it's unhinged. and it might just break your heart in 8-bit.