NECHTO: Infection Protocol · build 24458792 · published
The infected are no longer silent. They now have a hidden chat for their whole side — humans cannot see it at all: no button, no hint.
The channel is trickier than its own members think. Your name shows only along the infection chain: you know who infected you and who you infected. Everyone else is signed as "ORGANISM-04". You cannot type, only pick a preset line: typing at a shared table is visible to everyone, while a tap is indistinguishable from ordinary play. Nobody knows the size of the hive, not even the infected.
RADIO SCANNER shows how many lines went through over the last three turns — no names, no content. JAMMER keeps the channel silent for a full round. BLOOD SAMPLE tests your neighbour, but the answer arrives only at the start of your next turn. And SAMPLE SWAP triggers by itself, returning "clean" regardless of the truth.
Twenty-three cards changed names and every description was rewritten. Thirty-seven cards got new animated art: each has its own beat — a scanner sweep, magnetic arcs, a claw rising from under the grating.
Your review let us reproduce the lock-up when the turn reached a dead player. The counter pointed at a seat, not at a player. Fixed, with a watchdog against deadlocks.
Someone at this table has already made arrangements with the others. All that is left is to work out who.