Aarav felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. The nausea in his gut spiked, sharp and violent. He remembered the date. He remembered looking at his watch. He remembered thinking she was "low value" because she was sad. He frantically opened WhatsApp. He searched for her name. There it was. Riya (Bumble). He opened the chat. The last message was from her, sent ten minutes after he had left the café that day. Riya: "Hey, I know you said it was a work crisis, but you left your sunglasses on the table. I kept them with the manager. Hope everything is okay. Take care." Below it were two blue ticks. Read. He had read it. He had read it while sitting in his Uber, swiping on the next girl. He hadn't replied. He hadn't even typed a "Thanks." He had treated her kindness as background noise, the automated response of a Non-Player Character (NPC). Now, he looked at those blue ticks. They looked like accusations. He typed: “Hey.” Send. Single tick. He typed: “I’m so sorry.” Send. Single tick. The realization hit him with the force of a physical blow: The server is down. Permanently.