He shivered and hit "New Game."

He was the ROM.

And his magnum opus was almost finished: Pokémon Ntevo .

He sat there, heart hammering, for a long time. Then, with a trembling hand, he picked up the flash cart. It was cool now. He looked at his laptop. The hard drive was wiped clean. Every backup, every beta, every piece of fan art—gone. Pokémon Ntevo existed now in only one place.

Attached was a screenshot. The sprite for "ELIAS" was a low-poly, pixelated man in a plumber’s uniform, screaming.