He slammed the power button on his tower. The fans whirred for a second, then died. Darkness. Silence.

But something was wrong. The file size flickered in the corner of his eye. He looked again. 44.7 MB. No—43.2. No—.

Marcus, known online as "Ghost_Actual," stared at the error for a full ten seconds. His energy drink can, long since warm, sat sweating rings onto his desk. It was 1:47 AM. The server he’d been playing on for three years— ClanKillz HC S&D #42 —was suddenly a locked fortress.

The thing stopped three meters away. Its head tilted, not like a human, but like a viewport being reoriented. Then the game minimized itself. Windows desktop appeared. His mouse moved on its own. A Notepad file opened.

A single notification.