Elias grabbed the power cord of his PC and yanked. The monitor stayed on. The fans kept spinning. The game was no longer running on his hardware; it was running on him .

His "Photos" folder became STAY .His "Work" folder became IN .His "System32" folder became THE_LIGHT .

It was the sound of a mouse button being pressed. But Elias’s hands were in his lap. The Overwrite

Suddenly, a text box popped up at the bottom of the screen: The Feedback Loop Elias typed on his physical keyboard: “Who is this?”

Elias turned his in-game camera around. Behind his character was a window. He moved the mouse to look through it. In the game, it was pitch black outside.

Elias froze. It was winter. His heater was broken. He took a slow breath and watched the faint mist of his own respiration vanish into the blue light of the monitor.

The only sound was the rhythmic thump-thump of Elias’s character walking. He pushed the 'W' key. The character moved forward. He turned a corner and found a door. Above the door, a digital clock rendered in bright red pixels mirrored his real-world time: .