Arthur had downloaded it during a previous outage, then promptly ignored it because, let’s be honest, no one chooses Edge. But now, with his thesis trapped on a non-functional browser and the world beyond his walls a silent, unconnected void, he double-clicked.

"We have your cookies. We'll be back."

Not the lights—the walls . The plaster dissolved into a cascade of blue loading bars. His bookshelf pixelated into a grid of missing textures. The window showing his dark backyard became a live preview image with a spinning wheel.