He felt it the moment he loaded into the Combat Layer. A faint lag in his left knee—the one he’d rebuilt after the Hydra incident of ‘42. A glitch in his spatial awareness, as if the universe’s frame rate had dropped just for him.
Kaelen stood up. Slowly. Deliberately. He opened his settings panel—a thing no modern fighter ever touched—and scrolled past agility, strength, perception. He found the oldest parameter: . What A Legend Version 0.5.01
The announcer’s voice cracked. “What… what a legend.” He felt it the moment he loaded into the Combat Layer