The screen flickered. The lights in his room didn't just dim; they vanished into a thick, unnatural ink. Suddenly, the icons on his desktop began to break apart, crumbling into digital dust. From the center of his monitor, a hand—rendered in hyper-realistic, jagged pixels—pressed against the glass from the inside.

Elias reached out, his fingers sinking into the screen, and with a final flash of static, the apartment went silent. The only thing left was a single laptop on the floor, its screen displaying a simple, glowing message: 1 Peer Connected.

As the monitor began to ripple like water, a voice echoed through the headset still draped around his neck.