Alex laughed nervously. A glitch. He moved his mouse. The Guardian on screen didn't move. The overlay ticked to 0.9 FPS. It felt like the game was rendering one agonizing frame per second of something else .
The counter began to drop.
And in the top-right corner, in that familiar, crisp yellow font: riva tuner destiny 2
Tonight, the Tower hub area was crowded. Hundreds of Guardians, their armor shimmering with arcane shaders, danced and sparred. Alex’s framerate trembled. 140. 139. 138. A cold dread pooled in his stomach. He opened RivaTuner, cranking the scanline sync and forcing the framerate limiter to 142. The numbers steadied.
The Frame Counter
No Windows desktop.
Then, one by one, the frames began to render. He saw himself, asleep in his bed. He saw himself, walking to his PC. He saw himself, reaching for the mouse. He saw himself now , staring at the screen. Alex laughed nervously
And Alex realized, with a slow, creeping horror, that he was no longer playing Destiny 2 .