The screen flickered. A voice, low and dry, like old reptile skin: “Patch 3.55 restores what was cut. Every unearned victory. Every skipped loss. Every time you quit instead of accepting defeat… becomes MY credit.”

The character select screen was missing half the roster. No Scorpion. No Sub-Zero. Instead, a single greyed-out portrait:

He picked Johnny Cage—safe, sarcastic, a canary in the digital coal mine.

Leo moved out the next morning. He never played a fighting game again.

Silence.