The neon lights of Shibuya didn’t glow; they screamed. Rindo stared at his phone, the screen flickering with a distorted version of the Scramble Crossing. He wasn't supposed to be here. One minute he was scrolling through a sketchy forum thread titled and the next, the air had tasted like ozone and static.
As a group of Reapers in red hoodies closed in, Rindo gripped his phone. The 99% finally ticked over. A pin icon flashed on his screen—the . NEO: The World Ends with You Free Download
Rindo looked back at his phone. The "Free Download" hadn't given him the game; it had sucked him into the . The download bar was stuck at 99%, pulsing red. Every time he tried to close the app, a message popped up in a font that looked like dripping graffiti: SINCERITY COMES WITH A PRICE. The neon lights of Shibuya didn’t glow; they screamed
"It’s a virus," Rindo realized, his heart hammering against his ribs. "The 'free' version is just a backdoor into the Underground." One minute he was scrolling through a sketchy
"Fret, tell me you see the timer," Rindo muttered, his fingers hovering over a digital countdown burned into the skin of his palm.