The TV showed his room again, but now numbers were bleeding across the bottom of the screen. HP: ∞. MP: ∞. TIME LEFT: 47 YEARS, 3 DAYS.
He looked at the purple disc in his hand. The hand-etched V7 had changed. It now read: V8. COMING SOON.
Leo tried to eject the disc. The button clicked but nothing happened. He pressed the power switch. The green light stayed green. The fan, usually a gentle whisper, began to roar. Gameshark V7 Ps2 Iso
The screen went black. For a long moment, nothing. Then, the TV displayed not the game, but his own bedroom—from the camera’s perspective of the PS2’s little infrared lens. He saw himself, slack-jawed, reflected in the dead screen.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Dante came home for winter break. The PS2 was still humming. The screen showed a single, low-resolution figure walking endlessly across a desert, picking up the same potion every thirty seconds.
He stood up. The floor felt spongy. On the screen, the view from the PS2’s camera began to pan left, as if something was controlling the lens. It focused on the bedroom door. Leo hadn’t closed it. But on the screen, the door was shut. And on the screen, someone was knocking. The TV showed his room again, but now
"CHEAT DETECTED: REALITY OVERWRITE."
> ENTER GAME ID
“I’m not grinding for six hours,” Leo muttered.