They had been walking long enough that the campus thinned into storefronts, traffic, and pedestrians drifting home for the evening. The late afternoon had softened. The harshness of the sun gave way to a warmer light that stretched shadows across the pavement.
Zack was in the middle of an argument.
"I'm telling you, the gun feels illegal," he said.
Zoey glanced at him. "It's a gun in a video game."
"That doesn't change the feeling."
"You've never even used it."
"I've watched three videos."
"That's not using it."
"It is research."
"It is YouTube."
"Research happens on YouTube."
Camilla walked between them, listening without much interest as Zack continued, undeterred.
"And if they haven't nerfed the recoil, you build around it. High mobility, fast ADS, decent armor, then you just—"
Zoey stopped so abruptly that Camilla nearly walked into her.
"What?" Zoey asked, though nobody had said anything.
Zack had already seen it.
