Aestra walked alone, the city stretching around him like a living machine that never noticed the people caught inside its gears.
The streetlights flickered on one by one as dusk surrendered to night, casting pale reflections across wet pavement. Rain had fallen earlier, leaving the air sharp and metallic, the kind that clung to the lungs when breathed too deeply. Aestra moved through it without hurry, hands buried in the pockets of his dark coat, long strides carrying him past storefronts and apartment buildings that blurred together in his mind.
At 188 centimeters tall, he stood out without trying to. His black hair, slightly unkempt, fell forward when he lowered his head, shadowing black eyes that rarely revealed what he was thinking. People sometimes described him as cold. Not cruel, not unkind—just distant, like someone standing behind a glass wall no one else could touch.
They weren't entirely wrong.
His parents had died when he was young—too young to understand death, old enough to feel the hollow space it left behind. Since then, emotions had learned to stay quiet inside him, pressed down and controlled. Hope, grief, anger—none of them disappeared, but they learned not to surface. Aestra survived by observing, not by feeling too much.
He preferred walking alone. The rhythm of his steps was something he could rely on.
Tonight, however, his thoughts were unusually heavy.
Posters glowed along the street walls, animated holographic ads shifting color as pedestrians passed. Most of them promoted the same thing.
END OF LAWS : THE LAST GENERATION
The title burned in bold metallic letters, followed by images of shattered cities, towering digital constructs, and figures wielding weapons that bent reality itself. The game had been everywhere for weeks—on screens, in conversations, in the background of life.
Aestra slowed slightly as he passed one of the ads.
He knew more about the game than most people.
Not because he cared, but because Louis wouldn't stop talking about it.
Louis was his opposite in nearly every way.
Where Aestra was quiet, Louis was animated. Where Aestra blended into shadows, Louis seemed to carry light with him. He came from a rich French family, lived in a house that felt more like a private museum than a home, and spoke casually about things most people could only dream of.
And Louis's father wasn't just wealthy.
He was the PDG, the CEO, of the company that created End of Laws : The Last Generation.
Aestra exhaled slowly, watching his breath fade into the air.
He told himself that didn't matter.
Louis mattered.
Their friendship had started by accident years ago—a shared class, a borrowed pen, a conversation that didn't end when it should have. Somehow, despite their differences, Louis had stayed. He never treated Aestra like something fragile or broken. He never pitied him. He simply accepted him, silence and all.
That was rare.
"Aestra!"
The voice cut through the night, bright and unmistakable.
Aestra stopped walking.
He turned just in time to see Louis running toward him, waving one hand like he was afraid Aestra might disappear if he looked away for too long. His blond hair was perfectly styled despite the cold, his expensive jacket unzipped, eyes shining with excitement that bordered on reckless.
"Aren't you cold?" Aestra asked flatly.
Louis laughed. "Says the guy who looks like he lives inside winter."
He stopped in front of him, slightly out of breath but grinning. Up close, Louis looked exactly like what he was—the heir to a powerful empire—but there was no arrogance in his expression. Just genuine enthusiasm.
"What are you doing out here alone again?" Louis asked.
"Walking," Aestra replied.
Louis rolled his eyes. "You always say that like it explains everything."
Aestra shrugged. Silence fell between them, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It never was.
Louis glanced at the glowing poster behind Aestra, then back at him. His smile widened, turning almost nervous.
"So," he said, drawing the word out. "I was looking for you."
"I noticed."
Louis took a breath, like someone about to jump off a cliff.
"I want you to try something."
Aestra's eyes narrowed slightly. "If this is about another virtual test—"
"It is," Louis interrupted quickly, then held up his hands defensively. "But not just another test. This is… different."
Aestra looked away toward the street, where cars passed like distant thoughts. "You already know I don't play games."
"I know," Louis said softly. "But this isn't just a game."
That made Aestra look back.
Louis stepped closer, lowering his voice even though no one was listening. "End of Laws : The Last Generation isn't just entertainment. It's the most advanced full-immersion system ever created. Emotional mapping, adaptive consciousness, real-time moral evolution. The players don't just play a character—they become part of the world."
Aestra studied Louis's face. Beneath the excitement, there was something else.
Hope.
"And my father," Louis continued, "needs real players. Not influencers. Not professionals. He needs someone who sees the world differently."
Aestra's gaze hardened. "So you thought of me."
"Yes," Louis said without hesitation. "Because you don't chase power. You don't chase attention. You observe. You endure. And the game… it reacts to people like that."
Aestra was quiet for a long moment.
"I don't want to be part of your father's experiment," he said finally.
Louis shook his head. "It's not his experiment. It's a choice. And I'm asking you—not as his son, not as part of the company—but as your friend."
The word friend lingered between them.
Aestra felt something shift inside his chest, faint and unfamiliar.
"What happens in the game?" he asked.
Louis smiled slowly. "You survive a world where laws no longer protect anyone. Where the last generation decides what replaces them."
Aestra looked once more at the glowing title above them.
End of Laws : The Last Generation
For the first time in years, the path in front of him felt uncertain.
"…When do you want me to try it?" he asked.
Louis's grin returned, brighter than the city lights.
"Tonight."
And for reasons Aestra couldn't explain yet, he didn't say no.