That’s when he noticed the new HUD element. It wasn't a nitrous meter. It was a bar labeled . It was empty.

He went to the garage. The Erosion slider now went to 11.

He accepted.

The world outside the garage was gone. The city was a flat texture map. The sky was a grid. Only one race was available: .

He maxed it.

His car dissolved. The body panels vanished, leaving a wireframe skeleton of the original model. The wheels became glowing circles of pure data. The engine note silenced. The car moved on its own, a silent, floating specter.