The file wasn't a firmware update. It was a handshake. And by downloading part two, Elias had just given something on the other side of the "Global" network permission to walk through the front door.
As the download hit 99%, the lights in his apartment flickered.
He had spent three days hunting through archived FTP servers and dead-end forum links for this specific second part. Part one had been easy, but part two—the core logic of the OS—had been scrubbed from the internet with a clinical, terrifying precision.