One month later. Leo is at a retro game convention. He's not buying or selling. He's just... looking. At the joy. At the simple, un-corrupted fun of people playing Super Mario Bros. and Tetris .
PLAYER HEALTH: 1000
A flicker. A shape in the corridor ahead. It wasn't a Ganado. It was tall, emaciated, its face a smooth, texture-less mannequin. Where its mouth should be, a mass of wriggling, black wire-frames writhed. It held a rusty hook in a hand that had too many joints. RESIDENT EVIL 4 ROM
Leo’s blood runs cold. He looks at the young man's forearm. There, faintly, are green pixels. One month later
Over the next 24 hours, reality began to decompile. His reflection in the mirror would freeze, then rotate 45 degrees. His coffee mug would occasionally clip through the table and shatter on the floor. He saw the Hook Man in the periphery of his vision, standing in alleyways, waiting at bus stops, its mannequin face scanning the crowd. He's just
He looked down. His hands were polygonal, low-resolution, like a character model from 2002. He was in the game. Panic seared through him. He tried to move, and his legs responded, but with a strange, tank-control lag. He tried to scream, but only a muffled, digitized grunt came out.