That night, he deleted his browser history. But he couldn’t delete the image of that tree, or the counter stuck on 2, waiting for a third crash that would never come—as long as he never, ever typed those words into a search bar again.

The counter now read:

The text box returned. "AGAIN. BUT THIS TIME, ADJUST THE VARIABLES." Sliders appeared. Leo adjusted Vehicle Mass to max. Seatbelt Integrity to zero. Airbag Delay to +200ms. He felt a strange, clinical detachment. It was just code. Just physics.