She handed him an Xbox controller, which she connected via Bluetooth. "You need Game Pass Ultimate," she explained. "It’s like a VIP pass. Once you have that, you just click 'Play' on a game, and within seconds, the game streams directly to your laptop screen."

"This is creepy," he said. "And cool."

"For the true soldier," Maya said, pulling a small grey brick from her drawer. "A capture card. You plug your Xbox’s HDMI into this, then plug the card into your laptop via USB."

"The catch?" Maya said. "Your internet needs to be fast. Like, really fast. And if your Wi-Fi hiccups, the game gets blurry."

His older sister, Maya, a computer science major, peeked over his shoulder. "Trying to play Xbox on that little thing?" she smirked.

Leo clicked Forza Horizon 5 . The screen flickered, and suddenly—he was driving. No downloads. No waiting. Just pure speed.

Leo tapped it. His Xbox dashboard appeared on his laptop . He could see all his saved games. He loaded Starfield and continued exactly where he left off.

"Absolutely," she said, pulling up a chair. "But you have three paths. Choose wisely."