CHAPTER 206 — WHEN THE CREATOR BECAME THE TARGET
The first warning did not look like an attack.
It looked like silence.
Every screen inside the control room dimmed at the same moment, not fully shutting down, but lowering brightness as if the system itself was pulling back attention. The constant flood of alerts that had filled the room for days suddenly thinned out, leaving gaps between updates that felt wrong, almost unnatural.
Elena noticed it first.
Not because she understood the technical shift.
But because the room stopped feeling loud.
Marcus straightened immediately, his fingers already moving across the console before the next sequence even fully loaded. His expression tightened as he watched the system behavior stabilize into something unfamiliar.
"This is not a collapse pattern," he said quietly.
Adrian turned slightly from the glass wall.
Elena looked at him.
"What is it then?"
Marcus hesitated for a fraction of a second too long.
"Focus shift."
