Outside, the factory lights flickered. Somewhere down the street, a car’s dashboard screen rebooted on its own. Leo stared at the blinking cursor, realizing he hadn’t downloaded firmware at all. He’d set something free.

Leo’s hand froze over the keyboard. He hadn’t typed his name anywhere.

At 3:47 AM, he uploaded it via serial cable. The router’s fans spun down to a whisper. Then the LCD screen, which had only ever shown blocky green status text, flickered to life with a smooth, high-resolution animation: a white circle pulsing gently.