THE FINAL LOOP by Hicham Benjelloun

In Neo-Tokyo, 2147, Epoch is more than a sport. Played inside temporal fields where seconds can stretch into hours, it has created legends, ruined bodies, and transformed competition into spectacle.

Kael Ren was once its greatest star. Years after walking away from the game, he lives quietly above a ramen shop, carrying gaps in his memory from the Final that ended his career. He has learned not to ask what happened during the three hours he cannot remember.

Then his estranged daughter, Lyra, disappears inside the system that powers Epoch.

As Kael is drawn back toward the court, he discovers that the technology behind the sport has been hiding something far more disturbing than damaged athletes and lost time. Fragments of consciousness remain trapped within the temporal network, and the match that made him famous may have helped put them there.

To reach Lyra, Kael must return to the game he abandoned and confront former teammates, corporate secrets, and memories he can no longer trust. But the closer he comes to the truth, the less certain he is that rescuing his daughter—and everyone else caught inside the system—can be done without creating another form of imprisonment.

And this time, winning may be the worst possible outcome.