At first, everything seemed better. The persistent activation watermark vanished. His wallpaper looked sharper. Even the system settings menu replied faster, as if someone had tuned the engine. He opened his browser—and then his inbox—and realized he’d missed a dozen messages flagged urgent. One was from the bank: suspicious login attempts. Another from a colleague: “Did you authorize the wire transfer?” In the corner of the screen, the network activity meter – a ghost he’d never noticed before – pulsed constantly.