The graphics were jagged, the textures looked like wet cardboard, and Leon moved with a slight stutter. But to Lucas, it was beautiful. He guided Leon through the foggy Spanish village, dodging pitchforks and chainsaws at 20 frames per second. The lag only made the horror feel more real, every narrow escape a miracle of timing against a struggling CPU.

Elias inclined his head. "There is a way," he admitted. "But not without risk. The parasite responds to neural resets—shock, metabolic rebalancing. We need pulses. A chain reaction that restores the old circuits."