And every time, the disc inside had a new scratch. In the shape of an egg.

He laughed nervously. Glitchy disc. Old hardware. He pushed on.

He never sold the disc. But he never used the GameShark again. Sometimes, late at night, he’d hear a faint, glitched piano chord from his closet – exactly where he’d stored the SaGa Frontier 2 jewel case.

No text. No menu.

He booted the game. Applied the codes.

The PlayStation shut off by itself.