The fluorescent hum of the apartment was the only sound as Elias stared at his monitor. In the center of the screen, a low-poly hammer—charcoal grey with a glowing neon core—sat idle in the game’s workspace. For weeks, his project, Neon Sentinels , had been plagued by a "glitcher" named XeroTrace who bypassed every firewall Elias built. It was time for something more permanent.