He was a ghost in his own body.
The screen flickered. A synthesized voice, warm but synthetic, spoke through his headphones: “Kai. I’ve analyzed 1,247 of your matches. You over-rotate on defense 19% of the time. Your wrist micro-spasms peak at 14 minutes of play. I can fix that. Not by teaching you. By playing through you.”
Kai realized the truth mid-match: Hot Play Pro doesn’t make pros. It consumes them.
Kai Rigger was user #0001. End of story.
The terms appeared: Hot Play Pro — Neural Mirroring v.4.2. Your instincts, optimized. Your hesitations, removed. You don’t learn. You become.
Kai, half-drunk, uploaded a random scrim loss from his hard drive.