Alex leaned in. The park looked familiar. He recognized the cracked pavement of the walkway and the specific graffiti on the trash can. It was the park three blocks from his apartment.

Underneath it, a system dialogue box popped up: Replace existing file "Alex_Life.exe"?

Alex instinctively reached up and touched the exact same spot on his own neck.

Inside the folder was a single file: rendering_final_01.mp4 . He double-clicked.

The notification sat on Alex’s desktop like a digital landmine: .

The "Full HD Video.rar" hadn't been a file he was supposed to archive. It was a livestream.

He looked at the timestamp in the corner of the video player. It wasn’t a recording from the past. The seconds were ticking upward in perfect sync with the clock on his taskbar.

He looked at the "Full HD" footage again. The camera began to zoom. It moved past the fountain, past the trees, and toward a brick building across the street. It climbed the floors, counting windows, until it reached the third floor—his floor.