Fight night arrived. The lights were hot, the air smelled of sweat and cheap floor wax, and the crowd was screaming. As Max stepped into the cage, he felt a strange sense of deja vu. He wasn't looking at a man across from him; he was looking at a frame-rate. The bell rang.

Max "The Mutant" Miller wasn’t just a fighter; he was a glitch in the system. Or at least, that’s what his manager, a caffeine-addicted coder named Leo, called him. They were currently sitting in a basement office, the glow of three monitors illuminating a pirated copy of .

The opponent hit the canvas, unconscious before he landed. Max stood over him, his heart barely racing. He looked toward his corner, where Leo was holding up a tablet. "Just like the sim!" Leo yelled.

"I’m telling you, Max," Leo said, tapping a key. "The 1.20b patch fixed the stamina drain on spinning backfists. You can throw them all night now."