"You killed my character," Julissa typed, and the café monitor flashed in red: YOU WERE ASSASSINATED. "Again?" Joelle's voice shrilled. "Who keeps targeting you now?" "[System] Vancae activated pursuit order. Victim: JulissaE. Kill confirmed." The chat scrolled with tiny combat logs and a string of laughing emoji from an anonymous spectator window. "That's mean," a boy at the next table said loud enough for the whole row to hear. "Julissa's only here for attention." "She's always flirting to get group invites," another called. "Watch her bat those eyes and the campus boys melt." "Shut up," Julissa snapped without looking up. Her fingers hovered over the heal spell hotkey. The café's neon sign reflected on the monitor; the raid group's voice channel crackled with someone cursing. Her cheeks burned. Joelle's phone was already out, filming. "Who sent that?" a student leaned over, smug. "We can report griefing. No one likes a drama queen." A man at a corner table unclipped his headset and said nothing. He had been sitting there the whole afternoon, hoodie half-off, laptop stickers arranged with surgical neatness. Julissa felt him watching and for a second the red kill notification didn't feel random. She muted the guild chat and typed into the café's common thread: "It's just a random assassin. I'm fine." "Random? The system shows pursuit orders only happen when someone tracks a player," Joelle read aloud to the café like a prosecutor. "You literally