When he ran it, his monitor didn't flicker. Instead, his room went silent—not the usual quiet, but a complete audio vacuum . A single line of amber text crawled across his screen: “Syncing local reality to host.”

Jack reached for his mouse, but his hand moved a split second before he intended it to. He looked at his coffee mug; it was steaming, but when he took a sip, it was ice cold. The file wasn't a program; it was a