The cursor moved on its own. It hovered over [Witness] .

The emulator didn’t beep. Instead, a line of text appeared in the console window he’d left open in the background:

He walked Cloud toward the first reactor. The music was fine. The sound effects were fine. But the NPCs—the background sprites—they were turning their heads to watch him. Not following a script. Tracking him .

Leo rubbed his own eyes. Three hours of sleep. Bad coffee. He shrugged and pressed Start.

BIOS SCPH1001K - PROTOTYPE KERNEL EXTENSION. ALLOWS THE EMULATED CONSOLE TO READ FROM THE HOST’S REAL BIOS. NOT THE FILE. THE REAL ONE. THE ONE IN YOUR MOTHERBOARD.

Then the screen glitched.

Inside: one file.

I KNOW YOU’RE USING A CRACKED BIOS.

Leo’s fingers went cold. He went to close the emulator, but the window wouldn’t respond. The game was still running behind the console. He alt-tabbed back.