Alex blinked, his eyes stinging from the screen glare. He looked at the file on his desktop. The name had changed. It no longer said Football.Manager.2015.zip . It said .

Alex reached the European Cup Final in the year 2022 (within the game). The opponent was Real Madrid. In the 90th minute, the game froze. A text box appeared on the screen, replacing the match engine.

Alex loaded up a save with a struggling League Two side. The interface, with its iconic purple skin and tactile buttons, felt like a warm blanket.

Vance wasn't just good; he was impossible. He scored from the halfway line. He knew where the ball would be before it was kicked. Most unsettlingly, Vance’s "Personal Bio" in the game started to update with snippets that looked like Alex’s actual life. “Leo Vance enjoys late-night pizza.”

He realized then that he hadn't been playing a game from the past. He had been archiving his own lost decade. With a trembling hand, he reached for the power button. The stadium lights in his mind finally went dark.

: Find the 18-year-old Norwegian midfielder he remembered from his childhood. The Result : Pure obsession. The Ghost in the Machine

: Take a team of "nobodies" to the Champions League.