Elias reached for the power button, but his fingers passed right through it. He looked down at his hands. They were beginning to flicker, turning into a series of transparent, grey blocks. He wasn't a person anymore. He was just another layer.

The software groaned. The cooling fans in his PC roared like a jet engine. The screen turned into a chaotic soup of static, scratches, and light leaks. But as the frame rate stabilized, the room on his monitor transformed.

He went back to the folder. At the very bottom was a text file: READ_ME_BEFORE_APPLYING.txt .

The silhouette reached out. On the screen, a digital hand touched Elias’s shoulder.

Elias felt a chill. He looked at his actual sofa. It was empty.