He opened his mouth to explain. But the phone vibrated. A new notification: "NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES. YOUR MOTHER. HARDY BOYZ 2001 ERA. TAG MATCH. FIND A PARTNER."

Then the final blow: "Factory Reset Piledriver."

Malik looked up from his phone. His mom was in the doorway. "Dinner's ready. And why won't you answer my texts?"

"IRON MAN MATCH. OPPONENT: YOUR OWN REFLECTION. STIPULATION: EVERY TIME YOU LOSE, YOU LOSE A PERMISSION."

He looked at the empty hallway.

But uninstalling required permissions.

Malik tried to exit. The power button didn't work. The home button was useless. Then, a voice—deep, distorted, straight from a 2014 SmackDown promo—boomed from the speaker:

The screen went black. For ten seconds, Malik was staring at nothing. Then, the phone rebooted—clean, fresh, like the day he unboxed it. No contacts. No photos. No Priya. No Mom. Just one app: WWE 2K15.

"One… two…"

And he had none left.

The glow of the smartphone screen illuminated Malik’s face in the dark. His fingers danced across a shady website, heart pounding. "WWE 2K15 Android Download – Direct APK + OBB – No Root!" the banner screamed. He knew it was too good to be true—2K had never released a full-fledged Android version—but the promise of crushing John Cena with a chair on his bus ride to school was irresistible.