He watched the peer count drop. The "seeds" were vanishing. For a moment, the speed hit zero.
He stopped his car. A text box appeared on his screen, typed out in the same font as the installer: Forza.Horizon.4.Update.1.472.876.elamigos-games...
The next morning, the police found Elias's apartment empty. The computer was still on, the monitor displaying a static image of a lone car parked on a Scottish cliffside, overlooking a sea that looked far too real to be made of pixels. He watched the peer count drop