For three months, Kai had hovered in mid-Platinum. Good enough to see the summit, too slow to reach it. Every killcam showed the same thing: a flick he couldn't replicate, a wall-bang he couldn't predict, a jump-shot that defied the game's own physics.

The screen went black, then threw him to the main menu. His rank icon was gone. A timer ticked down: 7 days.

"Nice aimbot," typed a player named xX_Slayer_Xx.

Just one more scan. Just the ammo. No one will know.

He uninstalled Cheat Engine. Then he reinstalled Pixel Strike 3D—fresh, clean, no memory scanners. His new account was Bronze III.