Leo smiled, cracked his knuckles, and selected . He wanted to see how fast the ghost car really was.

Leo’s mouth was dry.

A cursor appeared. Not the usual sleek menu arrow, but a jagged, red wireframe.

Tonight, that changed.

The last text from Rachel was simple:

He clicked it.

The .

The garage door didn’t roll up—it exploded outward, shards of virtual metal flying into the rain. The Skyline roared to life, and the HUD vanished. No map. No speedometer. No opponent list. Just the wet asphalt of Bayview’s outer loop, stretching into infinity.