The digital world held its breath.
It was 11:50 PM, and across every continent, in every timezone, millions of people sat in front of their screens with the kind of focused intensity usually reserved for Olympic finals or last-second penalty shootout.
Social media had gone eerily quiet. The constant stream of posts, comments, and reactions that normally defined the internet's rhythm had slowed to a trickle, then stopped entirely around 11:55 PM. It was as though someone had pressed pause on humanity's collective voice.
People weren't posting. They were waiting.
On LucidNet, the last few messages before the silence were variations on the same theme:
"Good luck everyone. May the fastest connection win."
"My heart is actually racing. This is ridiculous. It's a pre-order event, not a life-or-death situation. And yet here I am, sweating."
"5,000 Lucids. Millions of people trying. The math is brutal. But someone's getting through tonight, and I'm manifesting that it's me."
